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I've tried to have that debate between my two opinions so many times, but haven't managed to find a way to be OK with people who are racist or homophobic. I'd
by corin_ 16y ago
I've tried to have that debate between my two opinions so many times, but haven't managed to find a way to be OK with people who are racist or homophobic.
I'd still defend the right to call me stupid, to call all British people stupid (my country), and many other things. But some hatred goes too far over the line for me to not want to try and prevent.
I'm not particularly up on legal systems, but I believe that in both the US and the UK the law is with me, to an extent at least - while freedom of speech is promised, there are also laws against types of "hate speech"?
Plus, freedom of speech says that they should be able to have that opinion and to say that opinion, not that they have the right to have third parties promote that opinion. Extending that is why I had the right to complain to Apple, and, while their removing the app isn't exactly a case of "free speech", it is a case of them being able to chose what their company sells based on moral choices.
- electromagnetic 16y agoAFAIK in both the US and UK you can still say whatever you want quite freely. Where the issue comes up is when people try to incite hatred, because all our laws fall under everyone else's rights being above our own.
- wlievens 16y agoClassifying blatant racism under free speech can have actual consequences too. Consider the genocide in Rwanda in which racist radio programmes encouraged massive killings. You could say that everyone's responsible for their own actions, nobody forced anyone to grab machettes and kill their neighbours, but somehow that argument falls apart when you're dealing with mass hysteria.