Originally Posted by
bowcycle
Jade, you're talking about all the flags, right? The violent socialists as well as the neo-fascists, right?
Cause they're all part of the same problem.
And it's not as simple as north-south this time around; it's urban vs rural, left-wing vs right wing, conservative vs liberal, constitutionalist vs free-interpretationalist.
But here's the big issues in all of this:
The Supreme Court has repeatedly reinforced the protection of free speech because it is vital to a free nation. I've lived in countries where speaking against a president or royalty gets people 'disappeared.' Freedom of speech is a bedrock for all other freedoms. You may not like what other people have to say and how they use that freedom, but you should fight for their right to say it with all your being. Imagine a day when those you despise run the country and use their political clout to minimize and scandalize your opinions and values. Who do you want speaking up for you in that day?
So while I find the values of ethnic supremacists abhorrent, no matter which side they're on, I'll very loudly and clearly call for their right to proclaim those values because I have seen first hand what happens when that right is suppressed.
And if you're wondering what falls outside of protected free speech, the test the Supreme Court uses comes from the 1969 Brandenburg v Ohio case.
Basically, for speech to fall outside of 1st Amendment protection: it must show clear intent to lawless action, call for the lawless action to happen immediately or in a specific, close time-frame, and have a high potential to actually happen (likelihood).
So someone in a crowd could yell out, "The president is bad! Someone ought to do something like bomb the Whitehouse!" and be perfectly within their protected speech. While this might get you on an NSA watchlist, you are perfectly within your rights to say it.
However, if that same person yelled out, "This guy next to me in the red sweater is a Nazi! Everyone come beat his a** to death right now!" then that is inciting with intent, imminence, and likelihood and falls outside of protected speech.
And if you think the swastikas and Nazi regalia are inciting, 1978's Smith v Collin disagrees. The Supreme Court ruled that it is protected speech for a group of neo-Nazis to march through a Jewish IL neighborhood full of Holocaust survivors wearing their uniforms, waving their flags, and handing out anti-semitic pamphlets.
Again, I despise what those people stood for, but I am so proud of our nation's past dedication to free speech. Too many people in the US haven't seen what it's like in the rest of the world and hold their rights too lightly.