Comment on Doesn't the need for a permit fundamentally contradict the US's ideals of free speech?
thesohoriots@lemmy.world 2 months ago
“Free speech” is very much misunderstood as a form of carte blanche as your example demonstrates. It’s written as “Congress shall make no law…” etc., implying you’re protected only from the federal government, but as time and court cases and legal discourse have shown, there are limits and implications for lower legislatures to model from. The classic hypothetical example is “yelling fire in a crowded theater.” Can you? Yes. Should you? Unless there’s a fire, no, then it could cause panic and injury, and you’d be responsible. That sort of thing.
Tl;dr to answer your question: no.
NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Free speech is the right to say your opinion, however unpopular or silly it may be.
But who would misunderstand yelling fire as “free speech”?
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yelling “fire” is just an easily visualized situation to start the discussion about how freedom of speech is not a universal freedom. It cracks open the door to the idea that there are many situations where you’re not free and that it’s not even about your ability to scream or be heard, it’s about government persecution limitations.
NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Maybe. But then you have fundamentally misunderstood the term “freedom of speech”.
I call it an unneccessary discussion. You should better think of it as “freedom of saying your opinion”.
It does not mean yelling fire, it does not mean yelling I kill you, it does not mean false accusations, insults about your mother…
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 2 months ago
… That’s exactly the point. Starting a discussion with people who’ve fundamentally misunderstood the right. People who think they can say anything and you aren’t allowed to be mad at them. People who think their right applies to private property and platforms.
thesohoriots@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If it’s part of a performance, for example. I guess the point of the debate here is that context matters and that you can do it under very, very specific circumstances.