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The classic example is someone yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre. The reason that "free speech" is limited is that limiting it does almost no harm, and allow
by TheDong 9y ago
The classic example is someone yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre.
The reason that "free speech" is limited is that limiting it does almost no harm, and allowing it can result in human death.
This actually follows well into the specific example of racist nazi propaganda. The argument is fairly similar; allowing that speech has the chance to, in a more roundabout way, result in human oppression and death.
Limiting it isn't great (especially since it often draws some amount of attention to it), but it does seem plausible that by stopping that speech from getting out there, there's less chance of such a movement forming.
- MichaelGG 9y agohttps://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/its-time-to-stop-using-the-fire-in-a-crowded-theater-quote/264449/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/its-tim... There should not be limitations on speech. By your logic we should limit speech on engineering and communism as they also have potential for harming people.
- TheDong 9y agoThe big difference is intent. Nazis / hate-speech intends to harm people. They are advocating for such harm. Engineering and communism typically don't, though where they do it should be shut down.
- dfps 9y agoI can't explain where the line is for the difference between saying that word at that time (although I suspect some lawyers might). I can see there would be a big difference though in yelping a word in that situation and being directly responsible for the harm it caused (mischief maybe?) and expressing a person's ideas and beliefs. The analogy you put doesn't work out, unfortunately, because ANY idea can result in human oppression and death. For example, the speech that civil rights leaders spoke and wrote that in a roundabout way caused injuries and deaths at protests motivated by them, the speech that fired up the American Revolution and other revolutions.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> The classic example is someone yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre. It's an example from dicta illustrating the logic of a case since overruled as stating an improperly narrow view of free speech.