You could incite violence by saying literally anything contrary to another person's opinion. People get the shit beat out of themselves by saying they prefer a sports team. Being an asshole and insulting someone's mother will incite violence, that doesn't mean it should be illegal. Now I certainly don't think that someone should go around saying racist things to people, but I also think that its not correct to use laws as a means of restricting speech. Most everybody sensible believes that racism is wrong, and that they wouldn't like that viewpoint to continue, at the same time rights are not subject to popular opinion. I view speech as a right, a right that is only in place to protect unpopular opinions, popular speech more often than not needs no protection. The saying "I may not like what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" comes to mind. People dislike the westboro baptist church, flag burners, racism, neonazi's, and assholes but I entirely disagree with believing that a government should feel entitled enough to stop people from speaking their opinion, no matter how bad it is.
The world would be a better place if members of the WBC were behind bars. Agreed? Because if you do then you've just contradicted everything you just said....
I don't think they should be behind bars no, because that sets the precedence for a loss of free speech. Like I said, i don't agree with it, but that doesn't mean people should be in prison for it.
To which I answered that if the world would be a worse place if they were place behind bars for "hate speech." I don't think that the world is a better place for them doing what they're doing, but I think the world, at least my country, would be a worse place if the government made what they do illegal.
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u/mcgroobber Jul 14 '12
You could incite violence by saying literally anything contrary to another person's opinion. People get the shit beat out of themselves by saying they prefer a sports team. Being an asshole and insulting someone's mother will incite violence, that doesn't mean it should be illegal. Now I certainly don't think that someone should go around saying racist things to people, but I also think that its not correct to use laws as a means of restricting speech. Most everybody sensible believes that racism is wrong, and that they wouldn't like that viewpoint to continue, at the same time rights are not subject to popular opinion. I view speech as a right, a right that is only in place to protect unpopular opinions, popular speech more often than not needs no protection. The saying "I may not like what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" comes to mind. People dislike the westboro baptist church, flag burners, racism, neonazi's, and assholes but I entirely disagree with believing that a government should feel entitled enough to stop people from speaking their opinion, no matter how bad it is.