Quote:
Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric:
I also can't help but wonder how staunchly Stephen Downs' First Amendment rights would have been defended if he had gotten a T-shirt made that said "NUKE IRAQ". I have a strong feeling that many of those currently supporting Stephen Downs would have been on the other side of the fence and would be saying "Yeah, he has a right to own that T-shirt...but the mall certainly had a right to ask him to remove it."
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Well, I can see the point you're trying to make, though a message like "NUKE IRAQ" is a lot stronger and harsher than the message on Stephen Downs' t-shirt; it might (barely) be within his First Amendment rights, but it's still a very offensive message of hate and he'd probably be confronted by many people, both pro-war and anti-war, asking him if he has
completely lost his mind walking around with a message like that. Here in Europe, he'd probably be frowned upon as if he were wearing a t-shirt with a Swastika, to make a wild comparison. Would I defend his right to wear that message? No, of course not. But I don't think this is a fair example, as that particular message is very close to, if not already over, the line where it stops being an expression of opinion within the limits of freedom of speech and starts being a message of hate. I'm not defending anyone's freedom of speech if it's based on hate, destruction and basically
directly promotes genocide, and though I'm not that familiar with the First Amendment in the US, it's probably not much different from the European equivalents which exclude these messages of hate from the freedom of speech-right.
No, I think a better and fairer example would have been a message like "DOWN WITH THE DICTATOR" or "FIGHT FOR FREEDOM", which is comparable in strength with the messages on Stephen Downs' and his son's t-shirts, only representing the opinions of the other end of the issue... And In that case I would have held the same position as I have now.
Oh, and I wasn't offended by your post, don't worry. [img]smile.gif[/img]
[ 03-27-2003, 03:58 PM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]