Comment by redserk
1 year ago
The US is a very odd choice to pick for free speech rights. It has had a terrible track record regarding free speech, especially throughout most of the 20th century.
Try advocating for communism from the 20s-80s or for the rights of black people in the 50s/60s/into-70s.
Or say the wrong criticism in the early 2000s after 9/11. At best you get surveillance, at worst you’re dealing with FISA.
We have not had any changes to the constitution to further protect speech, either.
None of those things landed people in jail. The US, from a law standpoint, has had the strongest free speech protections of almost any country in history.
The US has certainly had its problems, like widespread racism and the red scare, sure, but this is all relative to how other countries respond to speech with legal action.
Every single one of those things landed people in jail. Many people also got sent to prison under the Espionage Act just for publicly opposing conscription during the wars of the 20th century.
> None of those things landed people in jail.
Literally all of those things did.
- Equal rights activism https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/feb/1
- Communism activism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Act_trials_of_Communist_...
And don't even get me started on Snowden and Assange exposing the tremendous (war + civilian) crimes of the US government and being silenced and persecuted for it.
> The US, from a law standpoint, has had the strongest free speech protections of almost any country in history.
Absolutely false. It's not even in top 10.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries...
>Absolutely false. It's not even in top 10. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries...
You must be joking. Venezuela is 7th in the free speech index of that ranking.
Furthermore, you have 4 EU countries in the ranking, all higher vs USA. Those 4 EU countries are subject to ECHR, which has ruled freedom of speech does not apply :
- to protect the religious feelings of others [1]
- to restrict content that was tasteless [2]
- to say outrageous things [3]
Yet, all 3 examples above are constitutionally protected in USA. This sort of thing makes it very difficult to take the rest of your commentary at face value.
[1] https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/otto-pr...
[2] https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/leroy-v...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perin%C3%A7ek_v._Switzerland
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