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Freedom of speech?

Puppycow

Penultimate Amazing
Puppycow
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Is freedom of speech itself no longer acceptable in America?


Conservatives staging free speech rally attacked by critics

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A free speech demonstration staged by conservative activists quickly fell apart in downtown San Francisco on Saturday after several hundred counterprotesters surged the area, outnumbering and attacking those gathered, including knocking one in the mouth.
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Puppycow said:
Is freedom of speech itself no longer acceptable in America?

Conservatives staging free speech rally attacked by critics
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From the link:
Team Save America organized the rally to protest Twitter, which it said squelches conservative speech.

Members of the group wore red “Make America Great Again” Trump campaign hats and carried pro-police “Thin Blue Line” flags and U.S. flags.
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Easier to understand if you call it what it was: A pro-Trump rally in downtown San Francisco.
 
Puppycow said:
Yeah, but freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom only to say what's popular or widely accepted.
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"Freedom of speech" is an often-misunderstood concept. It means that the government generally can't prevent you from saying what you want or punish you after the fact. It doesn't mean that people who are offended by your speech can't respond with some speech of their own.
 
Puppycow said:
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A free speech demonstration staged by conservative activists quickly fell apart in downtown San Francisco on Saturday after several hundred counterprotesters surged the area, outnumbering and attacking those gathered, including knocking one in the mouth.
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OH THE HUMANITY
 
A group of people showing up to say something and another group showing up to say something else sounds like free speech
 
Pro-Trump/conservative group arrange protest designed to provoke a response to gain publicity. Sadly more violent elements of opposition, including just plain thugs, take bait. Conservative group wins.

I am opposed to violence. I am also opposed to stupidity. I strongly wish these were only non-violent counter protests.
 
Bunch of proto fascists here, explaining why it’s ok to use violence against the enemy within.
 
Given how consistently all "violence" at these things has always been started by the righties, not the lefties, and how frequently righties lie about that fact, the odds that it finally actually was the opposite of the usual just this one time are... not impressively high.

...especially given the additional fact that right here we have a righty already lying about it anyway, with the additional pretense that, even if a lefty did finally start it this time, that would somehow mean the government was cracking down on the righties' rights.
 
Bob001 said:
"Freedom of speech" is an often-misunderstood concept. It means that the government generally can't prevent you from saying what you want or punish you after the fact. It doesn't mean that people who are offended by your speech can't respond with some speech of their own.
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/Thread.
 
Thermal said:
Knocked two of his teeth out, for the sin of...what was it? Wearing a hat or shirt? There was literally nothing else reported.

This shouldn't be a laughing matter. The way discourse is going down lately bodes ill.
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Considering that “It is what it is” has become the mantra of Republicans in the face of hundreds of thousands of dead Americans, exactly how much in a twist are we supposed to get our knickers over someone getting punched in the face?
 
Is it never not okay to punch a Nazi?

It's become commonplace for Nazis to clutch pearls when bad things happen to them. It reminds me of fundy Christians whining about being oppressed in the USA when they're told that they're not allowed to oppress others.
 
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Thermal said:
Knocked two of his teeth out, for the sin of...what was it? Wearing a hat or shirt? There was literally nothing else reported.

This shouldn't be a laughing matter. The way discourse is going down lately bodes ill.
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You can bothsides me when someone plows a damn car into them. "We get to be murderously violent dickwads but you don't" isn't what I'd call "discourse."
 
johnny karate said:
Considering that “It is what it is” has become the mantra of Republicans in the face of hundreds of thousands of dead Americans, exactly how much in a twist are we supposed to get our knickers over someone getting punched in the face?
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Because if you are on Team Good Guy, your adversary is not a faceless character of everything you dislike, to be treated genericly. You don't knock an individuals teeth out because of your impression of what somebody else is saying.

I mean, have at it if you like. Just check your halo at the door of you think you are morally justified, with legally justified being long in the rear view mirror. Pick your side, but own that ****. Captain Kyle's Team will welcome your catch-all vigilanism.
 
Thermal said:
Because if you are on Team Good Guy, your adversary is not a faceless character of everything you dislike, to be treated genericly. You don't knock an individuals teeth out because of your impression of what somebody else is saying.

I mean, have at it if you like. Just check your halo at the door of you think you are morally justified, with legally justified being long in the rear view mirror. Pick your side, but own that ****. Captain Kyle's Team will welcome your catch-all vigilanism.
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Overdramatic moral posturing isn’t an answer to my question.
 
Thermal said:
Because if you are on Team Good Guy, your adversary is not a faceless character of everything you dislike, to be treated genericly. You don't knock an individuals teeth out because of your impression of what somebody else is saying.
.....
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We don't know what happened. If he was actually attacked by 500 counter-demonstrators he wouldn't have survived. If somebody pitched a bottle at the podium, you could call it "wrong place, wrong time."
 
johnny karate said:
Overdramatic moral posturing isn’t an answer to my question.
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Fine. The hyper-anal answer to your question would then be: We should get our collective panties in a fairly large and twisted bunch over the random dental restructuring of any Republican who is peacefully demonstrating if the justification is that you don't like what other Republicans have said at other times and places. This particular one does not necessarily carry that particular onus of responsibility. Not that random violent attacks are ever an appropriate response to vague posturing by others on freaking Twitter.

Better?
 
Question:
did the violent counter-protester hit to prevent someone from talking, or hit because of what what said.

Only one of those scenarios would be the domain of Freedom Of Speech.
 
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