Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
Yeah, that's exactly what I said. 
So we have some ####### like Donald Trump saying that it is alright to violently accost people at his rallies, that it is okay to punch them in the face. That's okay to you? We have the same idiot saying he thinks that a foreign power should influence our elections. That's okay to you? We have BLM inflaming protests by chanting kill cops. That's okay to you? These are the things that we shouldn't say, as a collective, that these behaviors are not okay and this is not how a civilized culture acts? What about the rights of the people that have to live in the environment this hate speech creates? Or does that not matter? |
I know it's not what you meant, but it's very much a reasonable way to read what you wrote, and the sentiment itself about casting people out very much reminds me of cults and the worst of religion.
Is what trump is doing moral? No, I think not.
Should he be allowed to do it without intervention by the state? Yes, definitely.
Same for the rest. I'm fine with BLM activists chanting kill all cops. However, anyone that actually attempts to should be arrested immediately. If someone is bound to carry out your orders, then you are culpable for that action. Not because of the words themselves, but because of the action of giving an order. The same thing is true of Libel and defamation. It's not the words, the act of speaking that's the issue, it's the deliberate spreading of misinformation with the intention of causing harm to that person that's the crime.
I think the person that acts on it should go to prison. I think it should be legal for Trump to say that and I think the correct response is to use our freedom of speech to condemn him for saying these things, and to explain why that's wrong. I don't think we should then make him an outcast; rather, I would advocate keeping him out of a leadership position, keeping him away from power, and not voting for the guy. Keeping someone like trump from a position of power is not the same thing as what you proposed.
Freedom of speech is not the same as freedom from consequences. People are free to remove their support, condemn you, mock you, and so on for what you say. You don't have to provide a platform for the person, you don't have to go to their speech, and you can boycott their business. Nevertheless, we should expect the consequences to be proportional to to the speech. The idea we should kick people out of society because they say something wrong is just incredibly dangerous and is massively disproportionate.