Serious Discussion of the Day: The Fine Line Between Free Speech and Hate Speech

[CostumeMistress]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 11:31am

A few threads over the past few days have brought this issue to my mind - the thread that spoke up the bikers who surround military funerals to block Phelps' protests, and the thread that reported the shameful appearance of Ann Coulter on the IU campus.

What is the line between free speech and hate speech? Are there some people who just should not be allowed to voice their opinions, because they hurt so many people? What happens when people's opinions are known to stir up protest and violence? Does this become a safety issue, where free speech should be halted to protect the greater good?

Discuss.

[staticradar]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 11:48am

I'm a firm believer in the first ammendment, but I think some people hide behind it a bit too much, there is a fine line and when it's crossed people cry fowl because they have the right to say what they wanna say and even the crackpots who spread hate speech still have the right to do so and there are those that believe them (not me, but there are some other crack pots out there)

I'm trying to remember back to my first ammendment law class back in college where there was a case about a KKK rally being held in someone's back yard or something? I need to try to dig up that case it was interesting and delt with this very issue...anyone know which one i'm talking about? I'll have to search for it...

I think hate speech is quite wrong and we should all just get along, no one is any better than anyone else we are all just humans trying to get by in this world and to hate someone just because they are different is arrogant and just plain idiotic...

But that said I think that with our first ammendment the way it is even hate speech has it's place...as long as it's done in a peaceful way and not to physically harm anyone...when it goes to the extremes that the KKK have done in the past (burning churches and lynchings and things) then it goes too far and needs to be stopped that's not free speech that's just arson and murder no matter how you look at it!

So as long as people do what the first ammendment says and PEACEALBY assemble then they do have that right...but i think tact should be involved as well...Charlton Heston doing a NRA meeting after Columbine was just tactless and that was asking for protesting...

Ok i've rambled enough gonna go try to find that case for discussion...

that didn't take long it's Brandenburg vs Ohio here's a link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_v._Ohio

Updated On: 2/24/06 at 11:48 AM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 12:00pm

"and the thread that reported the shameful appearance of Ann Coulter on the IU campus."

This statement proves that you have already made up your mind on the topic, so why ask for a discussion on it?

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 12:02pm

short of comments that put lives into immediate jeopardy, like yelling fire in a crowded theatre, or calling for someone's assasination (i don't know if the extremist religious websites that posted their death lists in the 90's were held culpable in anyway, but they should have been), i may disagree vehemently with your view, but by golly you've got every right to say it.

the minute we start deciding that certain things are not allowed to be said, we start down a slippery slope that ends in handing over our right to speak our minds to some outside controlling authority. now that's orwellian.

anyone who says otherwise is a g*dd*amned traitor.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 12:05pm

I agree. Like when Ari Fleischer told people to "watch their mouths."

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 12:07pm

that was a pre-emptive strike against comments that he knew would be made by david gregory years later.

[grizzabella]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 12:24pm

I'm with you, Papa and Namo. Restricting speech is a terribly dicey path, however much I may personally hate what is being said. However, when Hate speech steps over the line to become terroristic threats, such as calling for someone's (or a group of someone's) death(s) or violence against them, for instance, it goes beyond First Amendment rights and becomes criminally actionable. There are laws about yelling "Fire" in a theater, and there should be.