Adam Liptak
International Herald Tribune
6/11/08
Click Here For Article
Since the creation of freedom of speech, it has been difficult to discern the difference between hate speech and and free speech. Nazi's have been able to march freely, and newspapers and magazines can say entirely untrue and hurtful things, since they are all protected by the freedom of speech law.
In the enlightenment, many new and different ideas came about. As a result of this, the Constitution (among other things) was made. With the Constitution came amendments, the first of which being the right to freedom of speech. This was a fairly different idea at the time, since it was no
t too long before this that a person sneezing the wrong way could get them burned at the stake for being a witch.
I believe that our freedom of speech law is necessary to our society today - however, there do need to be exceptions. According to some of the events explained in this article, any newspaper or magazine can lie, provokes hatred or simply be offensive, without needing to suffer any consequence whatsoever (except for perhaps consumer outrage). Anyone can claim that they hate any race or religion, to any person at all, without getting in trouble.
There need to be exceptions to this rule, because if there are not, a little bit of hate speech and propaganda can easily grow into a nationwide mindset. This is usually how most genocides start - and although it may never get to THAT point, the things people are allowed to do can still cause some major damage.
In the enlightenment, many new and different ideas came about. As a result of this, the Constitution (among other things) was made. With the Constitution came amendments, the first of which being the right to freedom of speech. This was a fairly different idea at the time, since it was no
t too long before this that a person sneezing the wrong way could get them burned at the stake for being a witch.I believe that our freedom of speech law is necessary to our society today - however, there do need to be exceptions. According to some of the events explained in this article, any newspaper or magazine can lie, provokes hatred or simply be offensive, without needing to suffer any consequence whatsoever (except for perhaps consumer outrage). Anyone can claim that they hate any race or religion, to any person at all, without getting in trouble.
There need to be exceptions to this rule, because if there are not, a little bit of hate speech and propaganda can easily grow into a nationwide mindset. This is usually how most genocides start - and although it may never get to THAT point, the things people are allowed to do can still cause some major damage.
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