I wanted to make some kind of thread about this Joe Rogan video anyway, my original idea for a thread was much less subtle and specific than this one and was just going to be titled "If you don't like the Joe Rogan podcast wtf is wrong with you?"

Even if you don't like him he always tends to get something interesting out of his hundreds of interesting guests.

The guest in this video is Megan Phelps Roper, a former member of the Westborough Baptist Church who's now an atheist.






The whole interview is very interesting but in particular one part at 1:15:25.

The conversation is about free speech and Joe Rogan is saying that if a group has provocative things to say then they should pay for their own security rather than rely on the police who are payed for by tax dollers.

Megan Phelps disagrees and says that the law of freedom of speech is put there in order to protect unpopular speech because popular speech doesn't need protecting.

I completely agree with Megan Phelps, and I think Joe Rogan was ridiculous when he also makes the claim that he can still see some element of her mind being stuck inside the cult of the church because of what she's saying about their freedom of speech even if he is only making a joke out of it sort of.

But I do see where Joe Rogan is coming from in the sense that law protection is based on limited resources and it's possibly understandable that the police would be honest and say we can't protect you from everyone who's going to beat the shit out of you if you protest at someone's funeral saying they're going to go to hell and call them a fag.

I think it might be fair to say that if you believe in free speech then you not only believe in the right for non religious people to insult Muhammad and Jesus but you also must believe in a religious person's right to insult your dead loved ones and my dead loved ones.

I don't believe in free speech. I'd be very comfortable with Westboro Baptist people being banned/jailed. Unfortunately, given how comfortable people in power have been throughout history removing freedom when given an opening, we have to go beyond reasonable free speech to this absurd nonsense we have now to keep any threat to it at bay.

Joe Rogan is one of a group of comedians (Burr, CK, Seinfeld come to mind as others) who have a detached practicality when looking at the world. We've been brainwashed pretty solid on UNLIMITED FREE SPEECH IS SUPER IMPORTANT. But for someone like Rogan, I'm guessing there's the nagging voice that looks at it practically, and recognizes that this particular situation is bullshit. And it is.

(June 30, 2017 at 10:07 pm)paulpablo Wrote: I think it might be fair to say that if you believe in free speech then you not only believe in the right for non religious people to insult Muhammad and Jesus but you also must believe in a religious person's right to insult your dead loved ones and my dead loved ones.

If we cut down people just because we don't like what they have to say, then where would it stop? Everyone has a right to be openly retarded. Hell, some times it helps if they practice their freedom to blurt it out loud in public so we know who not to stand next to. Sometimes it's just fun to laugh at too.

If the police are real police (hopefully), not thought police, they can only respond to a real crime, for which I am one happy camper. I've thought of many methods for the punishment of people who have wronged me, which could have got me sent to jail. That said, there isn't anything that stops veterans from showing up at a fellow veteran's funeral and revvin' up their motor scooters in front of one of their tirades, which has happened.

Keeping the peace on a public street is the job of the police. 

I have a great deal more of an issue when I see uniformed cops providing "security" at sporting events. 






Let these rich corporate pigs provide their own "security" inside their stadiums.

(June 30, 2017 at 11:10 pm)wallym Wrote: We've been brainwashed pretty solid on UNLIMITED FREE SPEECH IS SUPER IMPORTANT.

Anyone with an education -- and there are many of us -- knows that all rights have limits, including the right to free speech.

You would have a idiot to take anything this group says seriously, if you believe as they do I share no concern for you.

(June 30, 2017 at 11:32 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:

(June 30, 2017 at 11:10 pm)wallym Wrote: We've been brainwashed pretty solid on UNLIMITED FREE SPEECH IS SUPER IMPORTANT.

Anyone with an education -- and there are many of us -- knows that all rights have limits, including the right to free speech.

This was also talked about in the video .
Megan Phelps says the supreme court ruled in favour of the protests by the church were protected by the first amendment.

The limit to freedom of speech that was being talked about in that case was speech that causes intense emotional distress.

Because the protests were seen to be a significant distance away from the funerals and no one was being forced to hear or see the protest from where the funeral was held it was decided the speech was protected.

Wikipedia has an article on it and a comparable case where Hustler made an article about the evangelist preacher Jerry Falwell having sex with his own mother in an outhouse.  This was also deemed acceptable because it was a parody of a public figure.

Current law in the US, as defined by the Supreme Court, is basically that the government cannot regulate speech unless it is basically an incitement to riot.  But that only protects the speaker from being jailed.  If he pisses someone off to the point of violence he runs the risk of assault.  That is why permits are issued so that the police can have a presence to "keep the peace" if need be.

I'm not sure we'd have legalized same-sex marriage today WITHOUT Westboro Baptist.

To this very day, it has not been proven to my satisfaction that WBC isn't a Poe organization. If Jesus had more followers of their caliber, AF would have already declared victory and moved on to being the [redacted] forum it has always craved to be.