This video of students from Yale signing a petition to repeal the First Amendment has been gaining traction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJVZa9_Ha5c
I believe there that have been some critiques of said video, namely with regard to misleading editing (not showing students who opposed the petition etc.), but I don't want to focus on the specifics of this video so much as an increasing hostility to freedom of speech that I've been noticing.
The main thing that prompted me to start this thread was a comment on a Reddit thread where someone said that they didn't believe freedom of speech to be sacrosanct, and would support imposing a fine on people who drew pictures of Muhammad. A lone comment like that wouldn't normally bother me much, but this comment had gained about 30 "up votes." That is, many people were in agreement with the sentiment.
I can understand people finding drawings of Muhammad to be tasteless or insensitive, and this is its own debate. What's really getting to me is the notion that it should literally be illegal, and the relative popularity of this notion. I don't even think that "hate speech" should be illegal (except in cases of specific incitements of violence), both because of the relative nebulousness of the concept, and because you can't ban people from actually holding lurid ideas; banning Holocaust deniers from discussing their ideas doesn't dissuade them from such notions, it just forces them to discuss the matter secretly or in more euphemistic terms.
However, I can't even conceive of a drawing of Muhammad as being inherently bigoted. Years ago, before drawing Muhammad became quite as taboo, South Park had an episode where he was drawn alongside Buddha and Joseph Smith as part of a religious superhero club. There was nothing incendiary about it, he was just another religious icon.
Am I out of touch? Is the U.S. heading toward greater restriction on speech, and could that be a good thing? Pathetic as it may sound, I honestly feel a tad nauseous and panicky over this.
I believe there that have been some critiques of said video, namely with regard to misleading editing (not showing students who opposed the petition etc.), but I don't want to focus on the specifics of this video so much as an increasing hostility to freedom of speech that I've been noticing.
The main thing that prompted me to start this thread was a comment on a Reddit thread where someone said that they didn't believe freedom of speech to be sacrosanct, and would support imposing a fine on people who drew pictures of Muhammad. A lone comment like that wouldn't normally bother me much, but this comment had gained about 30 "up votes." That is, many people were in agreement with the sentiment.
I can understand people finding drawings of Muhammad to be tasteless or insensitive, and this is its own debate. What's really getting to me is the notion that it should literally be illegal, and the relative popularity of this notion. I don't even think that "hate speech" should be illegal (except in cases of specific incitements of violence), both because of the relative nebulousness of the concept, and because you can't ban people from actually holding lurid ideas; banning Holocaust deniers from discussing their ideas doesn't dissuade them from such notions, it just forces them to discuss the matter secretly or in more euphemistic terms.
However, I can't even conceive of a drawing of Muhammad as being inherently bigoted. Years ago, before drawing Muhammad became quite as taboo, South Park had an episode where he was drawn alongside Buddha and Joseph Smith as part of a religious superhero club. There was nothing incendiary about it, he was just another religious icon.
Am I out of touch? Is the U.S. heading toward greater restriction on speech, and could that be a good thing? Pathetic as it may sound, I honestly feel a tad nauseous and panicky over this.
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1Ynm1cR
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