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> So that blows a hole in the idea that there's no clear line somewhere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobellis_v._Ohio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobell
by knz 9y ago
> So that blows a hole in the idea that there's no clear line somewhere
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobellis_v._Ohio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobellis_v._Ohio and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_v._California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_v._California come to mind. Obviously these involve government censorship but the idea that you "know it when [you] see it" seems to apply for Nazis...
From Jacobellis:
"Stewart wrote, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material... But I know it when I see it"
From Miller:
> "However, the Court acknowledged "the inherent dangers of undertaking to regulate any form of expression," and said that "State statutes designed to regulate obscene materials must be carefully limited."[12] The Court, in an attempt to set such limits devised a set of three criteria which must be met for a work to be legitimately subject to state regulation:
> whether the average person, applying contemporary "community standards", would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
> whether the work depicts or describes, in an offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions, as specifically defined by applicable state law; and
> whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.[13]
This obscenity test overturns the definition of obscenity set out in the Memoirs decision, which held that "all ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance . . . have the full protection of the guaranties [of the First Amendment]" and that obscenity was that which was "utterly without redeeming social importance.
I don't think many average people are fooled by groups that try and hide behind the principles of free speech when they walk through the streets chanting slogans associated with the ideology of the Holocaust.
- cr0sh 9y ago> "...But I know it when I see it" I have tended to think Stewart was being disingenuous with that statement. Simply because he seems to imply that only what he thinks is pr0n is pr0n. He doesn't seem to realize that anything and everything can be and is pr0n. I've often wondered, upon showing him an image or video of woman's foot in a high heel shoe crushing a wine glass, if he would think that was pr0n or not? If he said "No, that is not pr0n" - would he ever realize how wrong he was?
- knz 9y agoIsn't his point that the context is what determines the classification? A foot crushing a glass is just that. But the classification and regulation of that image may be different if the context is sexually explicit versus first aid. To use the Nazi example - someone with a SS flag might be a collector or history nerd but if they start marching through the streets with it while chanting racist slogans they will likely be interpreted differently. Defining that in law is difficult but most people know the difference, including those hiding behind free speech.