Quote:
Originally Posted by rubecube
I don't want to put in words in your mouth, but your first post also kind of sounded like "Hey, let's not force bigots to face any kind of tangible consequences for their bigotry because we're way too bigoted as a society to enforce those consequences without severe side effects."
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Any form of bigotry short of assault or discrimination under the charter is just another one of the myriad forms of being of being unpleasant. And being unpleasant isn't illegal. And if it was, most people are probably guilty of one form or another in the subjective opinion of some of their fellow citizens.
I sometimes worry that fewer and fewer people understand why we have freedom of speech in the first place. The difference between offensive speech and merely unpopular speech is a moving target, and largely subjective. You don't think Americans warrant the same protection from collective insults as visible minorities, but there's no legal or logical basis for your opinion. And there will never be consensus on who deserves to be shielded from unpleasant comments and who doesn't (do Jews? Ukranians? The Irish? Mormons?) Which is why we allow people to be offensive; better some people have their feelings hurt than we put severe restrictions on speech in order to ensure that nobody is ever offended by the comments of anyone else.