[Maru]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

There just seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding that "free speech" means "saying literally whatever you want, whenever you want".

That's not what it means and it never has been .

Actually, it is freedom of speech. At least in the US. I don't know about UK and their laws, but I'm curious if there is a difference between our implementation of freedom of speech and other countries...

Hate speech falls under freedom of speech. The two overlap. Unless it's harassment, a threat (in other words, a hate crime). Hate speech is considered freedom of expression.

If hate speech weren't Freedom of Speech, many of these hate groups would've been jailed long ago. That's why for many years groups like the KKK and Black Panthers existed, they didn't pose any particular threat. Kind of the like biker gangs here that support anarchy and all kinds of crazy ****. They blended in with the public, and many of them were apart of these things, but they didn't generally mess with other people unless you mess with them. Some of them have a strict codes and they respond fairly tolerantly all considering. (I met one named Prozac once in Ocean City, he gave me Marti Gras beeds (it's wasn't even Mardis Gras ) and he was insistant that he would not require me to show him my boobs ... all while the rest of gang stood nearby, drinking and partying, while also "assessing" myself and my husband)

Those groups have become more "agitated" as hard left propaganda has became or is being perceived (I'm not sure which tbh) more mainstream. Not only are those groups increasing, but newer ones cropping up just as quickly. Only when they feel their way of life is under attack do they act out this way... similarly, it's only "militarizing" (generally not literally) our younger generations to join these groups, since social media is a great platform for them to expand their propaganda and grow at record paces... oh, similar to terrorist groups.

I don't necessarily have to agree with the KKK or the Black Panthers, but for a long time you could run into these groups here and they didn't try to force you to think one way or another... they weren't in hiding though and the worst they got were some mean comments, in which they responded in kind.

Honestly, if the government (or even the mods) were to start prosecuting hate speech and got a little too thorough with it, I think most TiBB posts would be banned if it that's any indicator

This is why we allow for the rights of others to express themselves... ideas themselves aren't themselves harmful. It's when we retaliate and respond similarly (with hate speech of our own) against these groups and give them a reason to "militarize" their words by actions (again, not always literally)... we actually feed into their entire narrative.

There are probably few in these groups that actually commit crimes or really rise to the extremes of their verbal rhetoric. Just like 99% of the trolls online who send death threats wouldn't actually do anything... it's of no harm to us and we should allow them the room to vocalize. Otherwise, you risk (unintentionally) creating a pressure cooker for the 1%'s (the Timothy McVay's) to actually create the toxic brew that is inevitably delivered to the public when the realities of their atrocities

‘Hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment,’ Portland mayor says. He’s wrong.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ays-hes-wrong/


My husband works with these 1%'s (and 99%s) in his job (mental health detentions). He has always said "money is obviously no good here", but "respect is currency"... he may not agree with them. He may even be thoroughly disgusted by some of them. He is threatened on a daily basis in extreme details, actual people who have murdered... as long as you keep a rapport, help each other to get through the checks, the forced medication, the other more difficult aspects of the job (like forced removals, investigating suicide risk, abuse, etc...)

He is one of the most vulnerable spots to be in the system because he's not allowed to view patient records (so he doesn't know what diseases they are carrying or their psychic profile), he is expected to deliver top notch care to in some cases, hardened criminals (where our inadequate health care services have failed) ... but at the same time, he are not armed. He has OC Spray. That's it.

He is expected to talk them down... and some of them hate him for simply talking to them, but it's required by his job. So yeah... all the rhetoric that happens on the outside... my husband gets to see it everyday when it boils over. If he can manage to be tolerant and respectful (which again--respect is currency with many of these individuals)... then I think some people need to think about the big picture a little bit more, whether it even affects them at all, and if in fact they are feeding into a narrative that is inevitably "arming" the worst of these individuals to commit horrid cries. There are people actually in harms way of the 1% of these extreme groups... when we're worrying about the worst of what someone said on the internet, who for all intents and purposes, is might at best be an self-obsessed egotist searching for attention... and we're giving them that provocation to use (often) careless language used in ignorance that can be used, abused and twisted by actually truly dangerous individuals... the latter is who you should really be worried about. (Though I don't think that TiBB is an efficient platform for spreading anything political... mostly referring to places like Twitter, etc)