Comment by pen2l
11 years ago
> The rules concerning Mohammad contradict freedom of expression.
It's really not as simple as that.
You have the "freedom" to do anything, what matters is what kind of consequences there will be after exercising that freedom. If you say antisemtic or racist things, you're going to get your platform taken away from you. If you're a CEO, you'll be fired (and if you control the board -- well, other companies will distance themselves from you, boycotts will take place, etc.). Would you say the laws governing antisemitism contradict freedom of speech? Indeed Charlie's cartoonists were fired for this, see:
1) http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/152585/charlie-hebdo-fired...
2) http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2...
> Like every american stand-up ever?
I don't know of any popular American stand-up who can get away with saying anti-black things. Mel Gibson ruined his career by saying a few n-words and some antisemitic slurs, and he was a pretty big guy in the industry. Helen Thomas ruined her legacy by saying something antisemitic. No, there's no such thing as absolute, true freedom of speech. You can't say bigoted things in this day and age and survive.
I can't tell if we agree that they shouldn't have fired the guy. CEOs and politicians are a different thing because they represent people (or are supposed to anyway). As far as firing normal people goes, I'm not sure. I guess you'd want the right to fire bigots, but you also want to protect employees from bigots at the same time.
Shouldn't be too hard to find many american comedians saying pretty outrages stuff on youtube. You can look that up yourself I guess. Mel Gibson isn't funny.
> You can't say bigoted things in this day and age and survive.
But that's exactly how comedy works. The point is comedians don't mean it. Mel Gibson probably did mean those things, but the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists didn't. They literally made a living drawing funny things they didn't mean. And everybody knows that. You don't have to think they're funny, of course, but we as a society have agreed upon that stopping them because of that can't be an option either.