| Torillian said: Why wouldn't a religious society be offended if I said that god is a lie? Even if I put forth every fact I can just the statement itself is offensive. Wouldn't that be something you'd have to outlaw? Why is it unreasonable to be offended by that but finding other things offensive is reasonable? Hateful speech sucks, but I'd rather keep all the hateful speech in the world than give someone else the ability to decide what is and isn't ok for me to think and say. Whether that's decided by the majority or by a single person I won't give away my right to think for myself. |
It is also about context. Running in to a church and yelling "God is a lie!" can obviously be offensive, but calmly saying "I think God is a lie" among friends won't offend anyone. Saying that you "hate niggers" in itself shouldn't be punishable since it doesn't necessarily offend anyone, but go tell it to a black man on the streets and he will obviously be offended.
This dilemma (about whether people are offended or not) isn't exclusive to speech, it goes with physical actions too. Punch your friends repeatedly and they may or may not actually be offended after a while. Swing your fist in front of certain individuals regularly as they pass by and they may or may not be offended by it. Whether people are offended or not depends on the person, and the court is (or at least should be) there to make as few people become offended by others as possible. Society should prevent people from offending one another, not give them rights to do so.
Oh, and what you say has absolutely nothing to do with what you think. Those are two separate things.
