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To: little jeremiah
You basically say that any viewpoint is equal to every other viewpoint. If you really held that view, you wouldn't argue with me.

Well, I don't say that every viewpoint is equal. Mine is right, and yours is wrong.

That's not what I've said. Views are not all equal--of course your views are worse than mine, which you fail to comprehend. There is a difference between individuals making speech and government suppressing it, that is what you fail to see.

Free speech (which students do have some minimal right to) can only be suppressed by viewpoint-neutral tests (such as: "all speech is allowed unless it is defamatory, fraudulent, obscene, incitement to a crime, or in a time/place/manner that is inappropriate"). Schools can obviously impose greater restrictions on speech than exist for adults in the "real world," but the additional restrictions must be viewpoint-neutral.

If Texas decides it wants to tell young people that homosexuality is bad and wrong that's fine--but Texas can't stop young people from spreading the opposite idea. If Texas wants to tell young people that we took the territory from Mexico fair and square, that's fine--but Texas can't stop young people from spreading the opposite idea.

If liberals want to tell young people that evolution is the best explanation for the world around us (and it is), that's fine--but the schools can't stop young people from spreading ignorant ideas about creationism. If liberals want to tell young people that it's wrong to look down on homosexuality and homosexuals (and it is), that's fine--but schools can't stop hateful young people from spreading the opposite opinion.

See, that's the difference: individuals get to have political opinions, governments can have political opinions, but governments cannot suppress speech on a political basis.

284 posted on 11/30/2004 12:37:36 AM PST by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: xm177e2

The fact that you think that the ACLU + "gay" radicals (but I repeat myself) forcing an entire school district full of kids to watch a pro-homosexual video is free speech, proves you're worse off than I can even imagine.


287 posted on 11/30/2004 8:53:27 AM PST by little jeremiah (Moral Absolutes? Do they exist? i If so, what are they and where did they come from?)
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