Our Exceptional First Amendment

Adam Thierer

Lest any of us forget how lucky we are to live in a country where our speech rights are (largely) protected from oppressive government laws… Adam Liptak of the New York Times reminds us today in a wonderful front-page article: “Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech.”

June 12, 2008 | Comments |

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Franco Furger 5 months ago 1 point
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Allow me a bit of irony here: you mean as in the case of the Danish cartoons a few years back? Talking to my friend in the US at the time I couldn't believe my ears: the proud US advocates of free speech advising the Europeans to moderate themselves... What a sad day was that. I don't remember the US media going on the barricade on that occasion, either, but I would be happy to stand correct.

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D. Cesar 5 months ago 1 point
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Freedom of speech is required in a liberal democracy, and I don't mean liberal in the modern political sense, but in the 19th century sense of unbeholden to tyrannical authority.

Welcome to the United States. Prepare to be offended. Part of tolerance is the ability to disagree with others while allowing their views to be expressed, even if you find their views offensive and subversive.

"People who are willing to sacrifice their freedom for security don't deserve their freedom at all." (I'm paraphrasing here.) This goes especially for freedom of speech. _Fahrenheit 451_ and _1984_ are about worlds where offensive content is censored, everyone is kept placated, and people live in oppresive regimes. But at least no one is offended, right?

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