Defending the Truth

"Your right to throw a punch stops where the other person's nose begins."

Your right to freedom of speech should stop where the other person's reasonable right to not hear filthy or vulgar language should start.

What you speak in public should be considered affecting that right and therefore there should be limits placed on insulting and vulgar language which shouldn't be used, especially around small children.

Private establishments are another story and dependent upon the owner, but using such speech intentionally against another person as a weapon meant to wound should always be considered crossing the limits.

You mix actions and speech, which brings up an interesting paradigm. In a supposedly free society we should be able to do anything that does not infringe upon the freedoms and safety of others. The concept of crimes against one's self, should be an absurdity in a free country. This opens up arguments for legalizing drugs (the war against which has probably done more damage than the drugs themselves), prostitution, gambling, gay marriage and so on. Pretty simple concept I admit, but I think it's a valid argument nonetheless.

What of those things that you do to yourself that then affect others?? Drinking alcohol is legal, drinking alcohol and then driving is not legal. One could use your argument to defend the banning of such laws. Part of living in a society is the consent of one to certain freedoms for the protection of other freedoms. Without the protection of government to secure these freedoms, all your freedoms would be at stake. Here in lies the contradiction. Sacrificing full liberty, for a more secure liberty.

dmk

If you read what I said carefully, I mention that those things that impune the safety or freedoms of others should be outlawed. That would clearly cover driving while intoxicated, would it not? If you have access to heroin and want to sleep your existence away, so be it. If your need for heroin puts you behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated or engaging in criminal activity to secure it, then you are certainly violating logical and just laws. Like I said, it's a pretty simple argument.

There can be no complete liberty, as that would equate to anarchy. But our government today goes beyond restricting liberty by criminalizing things that do no harm to anyone but the individual committing "a crime against themself" and that is absurd in a supposedly free society. It also sets the stage for organized crime to take place.

Oh, quit bitching about all these rights and freedoms you supposedly have. Find a way to make a lot of money. Your troubles will soon go away if you are successful. Also, the terrible plight of a ghetto mom with 16 children will magically disappear from you radar scope.

Hi there.

On the basis of my own experiences of lack of freedom of speech, I have to say that I don't agree with your contention.


Firstly, the inability to express oneself freely results in ill-health in all sorts of different ways. Take the first verse of William Blake's poem A Poison Tree:

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

He understood the implications of not expressing oneself freely - in this case, of expressing anger.


Secondly, you assume that when one speaks openly in public, what one says could damage the other person if they find it offensive. No. Only if the other person lets it. If one takes offence at what others are saying, then one puts oneself in a prison of one's own making.

Let's take teasing. People who tease others - who do so by making supposedly 'offensive' remarks to another person - only do so because the other person reacts. If the tease doesn't get a reaction, then they get bored and stop making their so-called offensive remarks. The way to deal with teases is to rise above the teasing and NOT to take offense. If you don't, then as I say, one faces a miserable future of being vulnerable to any tease who comes along. It is therefore vitally important to distance oneself emotionally from 'offensive' remarks and to simply rise above them.


So I therefore suggest that it's not about 'rights' and 'wrongs', but about what is healthy and unhealthy behaviour. Lack of freedom to express oneself builds up all sorts of problems and damages one's health. Freedom of speech does the opposite.

Hey government--I was born here and told I was free and for many years, it seemed like I was. And it wasn't a special privilege for me, it was for Americans, native-born and legally naturalized.
Now you have an agency to butt into everything I do, say, type, eat, and you don't want me blowing smoke from big stogies to pollute and air--never mind that I'm allergic to diesel exhaust to the point of having to avoid driving behind buses or get too sick to stay at the wheel. Diesels are fine, they pollute the air for a good cause or something, but did you take note of my breakfast this morning? Fried eggs, bacon and pancakes with several cups of coffee. (And lest my delicate lady readers really think I light up big stogies, no, in fact I can't stand the smell of cigar smoke but I'll fight for the right of cigar smokers to smoke them and I don't like the way Clinton used them for non-smoking.) And I like the smell of some aromatic pipe smoke. That used to be the sign of a pensive, intellectual fella, not a whack public enemy.
The problem with Americans is that they believe too much of what the media publishes to give a good cause to hide a very bad one, and that is control.

Your right to freedom of speech should never stop. Who is to decide which words are considered filthy. And how exactly is a small child able to recognize these specific words as vulgar when they first hear one.

The exchange ended when Cheney offered some crass advice. "Fuck yourself," said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency. ...
Cheney Dismisses Critic With Obscenity (washingtonpost.com)

Whats wrong with this picture?

Bush and Cheney on 911 interviewed behind closed doors, refused to take an oath, refused to allow tape recordings and ensured no transcript be kept but they tell us (citizens) they can spy on who ever they choose. Tell Congress to do their job as they pledged to the American people and God to do! Impeach and Indict this administration for TREASON! Remember any PEOPLE are responsible for the regime they are willing to put up with!