Kopikatsu said:
But it's true. The US is the only first world country (and I don't think there are even any second world countries where it's legal) where hate speech is legal.
And they're the only first world country actually doing what they should be doing: zealously defending free speech as though it were the most important thing in the world, which incidentally, I believe it is.
No government should ever have the power to determine what sort of speech is and isn't appropriate. To allow them to have that power is to undermine the single most fundamental right every human being has, and to give them a level of power which seems utterly benign at first, but is in fact so insidious that it must never be allowed to happen. I hate to get all slippery slope here, but there are already enough countries out there who censor a lot more than hate speech, and as soon as you give a government the power to censor one form of speech, you've given it the power to one day take that farther and apply it to other forms such as government protest and dissent.
I hate a lot of things about how the US government operates but if there's one thing they got right from the beginning it was making free speech the first amendment and refusing to budge on letting government have such power. Sure they may try, but thankfully the supreme court is generally willing yo slap their hand away from the cookie jar every time.
If some form of speech or protest is considered hateful and detestable by society, then exercise that same damn right to speak out, to counter protest, and to make your side heard, and hopefully, heard much more clearly. But absolutely nothing ever gives someone the right to take that away from anyone else.
Everyone has a right to be offended, but certainly not a right to never be offended.
And I like your idea of not picketing funerals. Go Angel Wings!
