Is Free Speech a progressive Ideal?

[Neil Lisst]

Do you believe free speech is a progressive ideal?

Do we Democrats stand with free speech, or do we adopt the fascist methods of the rightwingers?

Please give your own experiences advancing the causes of free speech, and what this party means to you and your free speech beliefs.

Thanks!!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. We walked our talk

when NCFFP (Newton County Friends For Peace) had demonstrations against the war. We had people yelling at us, and we called back, "You have the right to speak your mind! Be glad for the First Amendment!" We had some pretty nasty things said to us, but that was always our response. We even handed out addresses/phone numbers of our Congresspeople to EVERYONE so they could contact them and let them know their views. Several of our adversaries took the information.

[Neil Lisst]

6. Bush uses police to stop speech he doesn't like.

It's a shame that Bush doesn't understand the ideals that made the country great, like the right to dissent, the right to speak up against power, and the right to tell those in power they suck.

[unpossibles]

2. I do but....

Ironically, so do many of the freepers (even though they advocate "shutting the hell up" without a hint of irony if you disagree with them about anything....)

A lot of the Wingers I know claim that the left is a bunch of goody-goodies who want to regulate everything, including speech. I don't know if they honestly feel this way, someone told them to say/think this, or what though.

[Neil Lisst]

8. Sometimes members of the left ARE guilty of suppressing speech

It's funny how power corrupts people, and it doesn't take much power to corrupt the weak and inferior. The dumber a person is, the more impressed they are with having a little power. That's why the policeman or woman from the podunk little town is the most dangerous. He lives to be a big fish in a small pond.

Sometimes I hear progressives say things about restricting free speech that are troubling.

Bottom line is - if you will violate a person's free speech because you don't like their opinion, you're a fascist, left or right.

[unpossibles]

14. very true

sadly, this is the broad brush they will paint us with, however, in order to communicate with the common American.

I find that "both" sides do this, but I think the NeoCons are the worst for sure.

[Loonman]

3. BUT.....and it's a big but

Free speech means protecting speech you don't agree with. That is even more important.

[Neil Lisst]

9. I agree. It's how we protect speech.

We thrive on a free exchange of ideas, and the latter day Nazis that want to control what we can hear on the radio, what we can see on TV, what we can read on the internet - they're enemies of the country.

Many of them are rightwingers, who find such things natural. Unfortunately, we have some of that among Democrats, too.

[bloom]

4. Of course speech is regulated to some extent. Notice the Plame case.

It all started partly because BushCo didn't like what Wilson said - so they "spoke" in a way that would do damage to him - illegally (treason, etc. - damage to National Security as well as to the people involved).

Restrictions on speech that will harm others, that is esp. threatening to others makes sense to me.

And I might take it farther than others. For instance - I see as it harmful to others to have someone make a Manual or a Video on raping children. I can't see any need to protect speech such as that. Other people defend it and say I am "authoritarian" for suggesting such a thing. I think they are unreasonable.

[mongo]

7. Well giving away state secrets

is more of a treason issue than a free speech issue.

And as far as a "manual" or "video" on raping children is concerned, it really depends on if actual children were harmed in making the work.

Otherwise, you could deem Lolita as a "manual on raping children" and ban it on those grounds. You could deem A clockwork Orange as a manual for home invasion and rape.

The first amendment is to protect speech that is unpopular. When you go about making depictions of things illegal, you can get caught up in banning way more than you intended.

The first obscenity law in America was used to go after Margaret Sanger and her pamplet on birth control.

[Neil Lisst]

10. Free speech means you are heard.

It doesn't mean you can reveal state secrets without penalty.

[Igel]

5. Yes, it is, 99 times out of a hundred. At least.

There are limits. Security, for example, can deny a person the right to freely share information s/he has. Incitement to violence and a few other cases in which harm is predictable, and little or nothing is gained by free speech.

That leaves the overwhelming majority of cases.

I've not noticed the call for limitations to be especially left or right wing; I've noticed the calls for limitations to be different. I've argued with dems that wanted hate-speech laws, and with repubs that were in favor of anti-flag-burning amendments.

[Neil Lisst]

11. Patriot Act restricts free speech rights.

among other things

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. Copyright law is another exception to free speech.

And it too is a denial of the right to freely share information.

And that's why copyrights should be strictly limited.

[bloom]

16. That's another case where people are harmed

if "speech" is not regulated.

What's the point of trying to make a living creating things if other people can just go and copy/sell your creation and so you make little or nothing from it?

I don't like it when copyrights are extended to after the creator dies. That is not about protecting the creator of the work. The people trying to cash in on someone else ought to create their own stuff.

[MN ChimpH8R]

12. It certainly is for this progressive

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."

Louis D. Brandeis

[Neil Lisst]

15. Thanks. Louis Brandeis was a great one.

I miss the intelligent discourse of days gone by, when people could argue without the PC police on the left and the right shouting down anything they don't like.

[Skinner]

17. I'm going to lock this thread.

Because I believe the misunderstanding that led to this thread has been cleared up by email. Thanks.