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"to use violence to keep your fellow citizens or subjects from saying original but forbidden things" Imagine the scenario. A man is standing outside a gay bar
by tommorris 14y ago
"to use violence to keep your fellow citizens or subjects from saying original but forbidden things"
Imagine the scenario. A man is standing outside a gay bar shouting "I hate all you shit-stabbers, I'm going to kill you all" over and over.
My initial thought isn't "I'm so glad we don't infringe on his originality. I sure do hope that the police don't throw him in a cell overnight for a few hours until he's calmed down."
I'm not saying freedom of speech is bad, I'm saying that the moral intuition that someone being offensive with a plausible threat of violence isn't deserving of protection as free speech is quite a reasonable one.
- CamperBob2 14y agoTrue, I agree that plausible threats of violence shouldn't be able to hide behind "free speech" protections. The Tweet in question isn't a plausible threat of violence, IMO.