Westborough Baptist Church - free speech.

[henryp]

I have the same general conclusion as you, which I stated in the 3rd sentence and bolded.  

Where I think we divege, is that I don't defend Phelps in any capacity.  His stuff is just a flaw in the system.  It's an unfortunate side effect.  Not something to look at in any positive light.  I don't see it as "Look how free we are!  Isn't it amazing!"  Instead, i see it as "This is the shit we have to put up with, because humans are too fucked up to be trusted."

Oh my fucking thor, NOBODY is saying you have to view his vile bullshit in a positive light. You don't defend unpopular speech for them, you do it for the long term to PROTECT WHAT YOU MIGHT WANT TO SAY.

Please remember this as an ATHEIST, we are not well liked in America. Do you really want our government, which is now a majority of GOP and a lopsided gerrymandered system to give right wing Christians more power? This is what is going to happen if you keep that PC shit up. THEY are going to turn around and say, "Well if I cant say this, then you cant say that". Guess who will lose long term, YOU!

"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."

That's what I said in my first post.  It's what you keep repeating back to me.

There's some nuance to the issue, but I don't think this is the place for nuance. And that's unsurprising as well, as I said in a previous post, people have been conditioned very well in how they should feel about the issue.