First amendment for dummies
After reading a Tumblr entry in which neither side showed any indication of knowing what the first amendment actually is, I went off on this rant:
I hate how nobody seems to know what the first amendment actually is and how it works. The first amendment protects your free speech from THE GOVERNMENT. (Though nobody enforces it anymore.) The first amendment does not protect you from the consequences when someone doesn't like what you've said. If I went into a biker bar and shouted, "All bikers are pansy-ass faggots that prance like gay fairies!" the first amendment is not going to protect me from the bikers beating the living shit out of me, nor will I be able to sue them for violating my first amendment rights."
Now, if I was on the street talking about how the government is a police state and we should overthrow it and replace it with an anarchistic system, and a police officer comes by and beats the fucking shit out of me, THEN it is a first amendment issue, because the on-duty cop, a government employee, does not have the right to punish me for speaking my mind.
Like I said, nobody enforces the first amendment properly anymore. Fucking cops beat people up all the time for voicing their opinions. I think part of it is, nobody fucking knows what the first amendment is to begin with. Hence this little rant.
This was cross-posted from http://alex-antonin.dreamwidth.org/197178.html
You can comment either here or there.
I hate how nobody seems to know what the first amendment actually is and how it works. The first amendment protects your free speech from THE GOVERNMENT. (Though nobody enforces it anymore.) The first amendment does not protect you from the consequences when someone doesn't like what you've said. If I went into a biker bar and shouted, "All bikers are pansy-ass faggots that prance like gay fairies!" the first amendment is not going to protect me from the bikers beating the living shit out of me, nor will I be able to sue them for violating my first amendment rights."
Now, if I was on the street talking about how the government is a police state and we should overthrow it and replace it with an anarchistic system, and a police officer comes by and beats the fucking shit out of me, THEN it is a first amendment issue, because the on-duty cop, a government employee, does not have the right to punish me for speaking my mind.
Like I said, nobody enforces the first amendment properly anymore. Fucking cops beat people up all the time for voicing their opinions. I think part of it is, nobody fucking knows what the first amendment is to begin with. Hence this little rant.
This was cross-posted from http://alex-antonin.dreamwidth.org/197178.html
You can comment either here or there.