Free Speech to find Truth

more-geese-than-swans on October 28, 2013 at 1:29 am said:
Freedom of speech is the keystone, the one freedom upon which all our other rights depend. Once it is gone, we will be serfs.

We must never put “feelings” before facts. Truth must always be an absolute defense to charges of libel, slander, racism, “hate speech” or “defamation of religion.”

Also, we must clarify our definition of “incitement to violence.” Only those who urge others on to violence are guilty of incitement. Those who merely speak truth are never guilty of incitement, even if those who oppose that truth falsely believe they have the right to use violence to suppress such speech. The freedom of speech means nothing if it can be curtailed because you “should have expected that someone might react violently against your words.” The state’s duty is to punish the violent for their attempt to silence the speakers, not to silence the speakers because their thuggish opposition might react violently!

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Henrik R. Clausen
on October 28, 2013 at 10:13 am said:
Actually I consider property rights, including that to your own body, to be yet more fundamental, but that’s a long philosophical discussion :)

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Dymphna
on October 28, 2013 at 12:49 pm said:
They are connected: we have a right to defend our property against those who would take it; we have a right to speak even if what we say offends others. Let their mothers comfort them when the meanies say hurtful things.

It is not the place of the state to run interference for the thin-skinned or for those who want to build their own power base.

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Henrik R. Clausen
on October 28, 2013 at 1:46 pm said:
Let me rephrase that as a property right:

Noone has the right to take control of your property on the pretext of your saying something “wrong”, “offensive” or the like.

Then, using speech or other forms of expression to commit fraud or other forms of crime is a different matter.

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Napier
on October 28, 2013 at 2:49 pm said:
It’s the first thing on the 1600s BOR and the American BOR for a very good reason.

If you can rant a while without being arrested or ruined the problems in a society fix themselves.