(November 3, 2014 at 5:38 pm)Faith No More Wrote: If we criminalize speech that is not a direct threat, no matter how distasteful, the terrorists win by causing us to give up our freedom for protection. There's a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin that says that anyone that gives up freedom for security deserves neither. Government regulation of speech creates an environment that threatens every freedom you have.In what way does a quote proves your point of view is right? According to that line of thoughts - We should legalize murder since making it illegal to kill people violates our personal liberty (I can't chose to kill people - What a let down!) and enhances security. Forbidding highly damaging or harmful freedom of expression is a common procedure in Europe - You can't incentive murder, you cant' wave a nazi flag and tell publicly all jews should be exterminated, you can't praise the Al-Qaeda's accomplishments. The problem is NOT that it is offensive, everything we say may be offensive to some people - The problem is when it is harmful to society - Considering there are a lot of ignorant uneducated people out there, we live better by stopping propaganda of certain ideas. I certainly wouldn't like to see a manifestation of people protesting against atheists and saying they should be beheaded, and I'm glad that's illegal.
I understand that for some people it may be right to never give up on freedom of expression and speech, but no right should be absolute, using rights to cause harm to others or to society as a whole shouldn't be allowed.
The phrase of giving up liberty in detriment of security being a bad choice is inherently wrong from the start since there are a lot of structures and aspects in all societies where there is a balance between both values and not a prevalence of individual freedoms - The example of being illegal to murder is an example of security being over freedom. Any other crime is a good example. France forbidding burkas and religious symbols in classrooms is another example.
I am not saying my opinion is flawless and 100% correct, but I just felt like giving a different point of view, considering what I'm saying is basically common sense in many states over Europe, I reckon it may not be in the US and Canada, but a different perspective doesn't harm does it?
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
