4 ms·
> like yelling fire in a theater I hate that this example is always used. Yelling fire in a theator for a laugh isn't "expressing ideas". It's a kind of soci
by alien_at_work 9y ago
> like yelling fire in a theater
I hate that this example is always used. Yelling fire in a theator for a laugh isn't "expressing ideas". It's a kind of social fraud: in some sense we depend on each other to make society work and someone shouting that our lives are in danger when they are not is violating this trust. Not by expressing some philosophical ideal but by exclaiming something they know to be false.
- boomlinde 9y agoYelling fire in a theater expresses the idea that there is a fire in the theater, whether it's true or not. It's a good example because it's a pretty bad and at best worthless thing to express, and because it has been used before (Schenck v. United States) when free speech has been abridged where the speech in question wasn't categorically not covered, just dangerous and unmerited enough to be considered illegal anyway. It is considered a well motivated abridgment. There's nothing about the constitutional idea of free speech that says it has to be of philosophical value or true.