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To: Saint Athanasius
So should we let everything be legal?

Of course not. Murder should be illegal, as should theft, rape, assault, and lots of other real crimes in which victims are objectively harmed. There are an ample number of real crimes and real criminals to keep our law enforcement agencies and our justice system fully occupied.

Speech and other forms of expression (written words, movies, video games, etc.) are not criminal, no matter how hateful or offensive or stupid or ridiculous or shocking or immoral some people may find them. You may find some of that expression to be unpleasant and objectionable, but you are just going to have to learn to tolerate it if you are going to live in a free society rather than a regimented dictatorship or theocracy.

Unless it causes direct, tangible harm to others (e.g., the famous dictum about not yelling fire in a crowded theater, because the resulting panic and stampede could result in injury and death), all such expression is protected by the First Amendment.

18 posted on 07/17/2004 11:00:40 PM PDT by dpwiener
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To: dpwiener

I was refering to speech... should all speech be legal? (porn, racism, etc.)...

Not everything spoken; written and pictures are protected under the first amendment... (especially for minors under 17)

YOu can't interpret the first amendment how you think the first amendment should be interpreted... you have to look into what it actually means...

It is not a blank check... look at what the founding fathers said about the first amendment...

You have to use their interpretation... not yours to determine what the first amendment means.

I also disagree with your assessment about speech not being harmful...

Nazi Germany being a prime example... they used propaganda saying Jews were RATS... Jews are not human....

Don't you think that had some impact on German society?

I would say that was some direct, tangible evidence... there is more than yelling fire into a theater...

Speech and propaganda can have some major impact on society... and what about lying speech, or slander speech... should that be protected too under your interpretation of the First Amendment?

By the way, did we live under a dictatorship in the early republic where certain things that could be written and certain things could not?

Like I said in the beginning... we do not live in a vacuum.

By the way, this law was limiting the use for kids... now, how is that a violation?


22 posted on 07/18/2004 6:52:33 AM PDT by Saint Athanasius ("I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born." - Ronald Reagan)
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