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Only if you have a narrow, pinched, legalistic definition of "free speech" which would be unrecognizable to any of the philosophers and statesmen who created ou

Only if you have a narrow, pinched, legalistic definition of "free speech" which would be unrecognizable to any of the philosophers and statesmen who created our modern understanding of the concept. If, for getting into an argument with certain people, you can be punished with being ostracized, fired, prevented from earning a living, demonized by the news media, and put through a years-long wringer in the courts, your freedom of speech is harmed even if at the end of it a judge says not guilty.

stevebmark 11y ago
And still, nothing you said has anything to do with free speech.
kaonashi 11y ago
> ostracized, fired, prevented from earning a living …and if you force people to be in your company regardless of what you say does to those people, you've taken away their freedom of assembly.
- 13thLetter 11y ago
  Then it's a good thing that's not what I said, isn't it? Not everything that's legal is right. A company that fires someone because they got in a Twitter argument on their own time is behaving legally, and an attempt to make such an action illegal would probably cause more problems than it solves. But a company that does such a thing would not be right.
  - kaonashi 11y ago
    That would depend on how what that person said affects their relationships with co-workers (e.g. someone went on a racist Twitter tirade that all their co-workers read, some of whom belong to groups they were disparaging)
    - 13thLetter 11y ago
      Are you comfortable with your employer having the power to control what you say, in your free time, and not about said employer? Because that's what this boils down to. I would expect people who are skeptical about the great power that large corporations hold to oppose that kind of behavior.
      - kaonashi 11y ago
        I'm comfortable that my employer can terminate my employment should I alienate the people I work with to the point I can no longer carry out my job.
        13thLetter 11y ago
        I hope for your sake that the political winds never blow a little differently, then.
        deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
        stevebmark 11y ago
        An employer can already fire you for saying something in your free time. An employer can fire you for ANY reason, ANY, that doesn't violate civil rights. This is well known and no one is fighting for any laws to change this. This lawsuit is about harassment, not free speech, and celebrating (legal) "harassment" on the grounds of "free speech" is again, flawed reasoning.
        13thLetter 11y ago
        "An employer can already fire you for saying something in your free time. An employer can fire you for ANY reason, ANY, that doesn't violate civil rights. This is well known and no one is fighting for any laws to change this." Literally five replies ago in this very same comment chain, I stated that it was indeed completely legal for employers to behave in this fashion, and should continue to be so; I merely pointed out that it was not right. "This lawsuit is about harassment, not free speech, and celebrating (legal) "harassment" on the grounds of "free speech" is again, flawed reasoning." But this comment chain very definitely is about employers firing people for exercising their free speech, on their own time, not related to their employer. I don't think they should do that. What do you think?

stevebmark 11y ago

And still, nothing you said has anything to do with free speech.

kaonashi 11y ago

> ostracized, fired, prevented from earning a living …and if you force people to be in your company regardless of what you say does to those people, you've taken away their freedom of assembly.

13thLetter 11y ago
Then it's a good thing that's not what I said, isn't it? Not everything that's legal is right. A company that fires someone because they got in a Twitter argument on their own time is behaving legally, and an attempt to make such an action illegal would probably cause more problems than it solves. But a company that does such a thing would not be right.
- kaonashi 11y ago
  That would depend on how what that person said affects their relationships with co-workers (e.g. someone went on a racist Twitter tirade that all their co-workers read, some of whom belong to groups they were disparaging)
  - 13thLetter 11y ago
    Are you comfortable with your employer having the power to control what you say, in your free time, and not about said employer? Because that's what this boils down to. I would expect people who are skeptical about the great power that large corporations hold to oppose that kind of behavior.
    - kaonashi 11y ago
      I'm comfortable that my employer can terminate my employment should I alienate the people I work with to the point I can no longer carry out my job.
      - 13thLetter 11y ago
        I hope for your sake that the political winds never blow a little differently, then.
        deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
        stevebmark 11y ago
        An employer can already fire you for saying something in your free time. An employer can fire you for ANY reason, ANY, that doesn't violate civil rights. This is well known and no one is fighting for any laws to change this. This lawsuit is about harassment, not free speech, and celebrating (legal) "harassment" on the grounds of "free speech" is again, flawed reasoning.
        13thLetter 11y ago
        "An employer can already fire you for saying something in your free time. An employer can fire you for ANY reason, ANY, that doesn't violate civil rights. This is well known and no one is fighting for any laws to change this." Literally five replies ago in this very same comment chain, I stated that it was indeed completely legal for employers to behave in this fashion, and should continue to be so; I merely pointed out that it was not right. "This lawsuit is about harassment, not free speech, and celebrating (legal) "harassment" on the grounds of "free speech" is again, flawed reasoning." But this comment chain very definitely is about employers firing people for exercising their free speech, on their own time, not related to their employer. I don't think they should do that. What do you think?