The Act of Speech Deserve No Special Treatment

[Crono141]

IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

Crono141 said:

IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

Thoughts can't harm anyone but yourself. Speech can harm anyone if expressed inappropriately.

You won't ever need to think twice unless you plan to actually harm someone, and no one should ever harm anyone. Your laws though justifies harming others mentally, even if it is on purpose. That I cannot understand.

It's not about preventing people from expressing their opinions (like a thought police would), it's about using your opinion as a weapon against minorities, for instance. You can have any opinion as long as you don't use it to intentionally harm others.

The court may decide whether it was intentional or not by being as fair as it possibly can be.

Speech can't hurt anyone either.  Have you heard the rhyme "Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."  Its true.  Words you hear only have the power to hurt you if you give them that power.  I should not be held responsible for someone elses perception of what I say.  It is not my problem if my speech offends you, its yours.

Again, there is no inalenable right to be free of offense.  What you are proposing is limiting and removing someone elses freedom so that you don't risk being offended.  There are countries with laws like this.  I believe Saudi Arabia and Iran are two, as is North Korea.

If you don't understand how terrible and horrible limiting people's speech is, even on a basic level, then there'll be no convincing you.

If you keep making our (fair, imo) approach to free speech appear as bad or even similar to North Korea and Iran's definitions, then there'll be no convincing you.

People commit suicide every day because of what others are saying to them. If you choose to put the blame on the person who commit suicide then so be it, I prefer to put the blame on those who talked shit to this person.

That's another flaw in the American system. You always assume that everyone will be able to take any verbal crap flinged at them, and that it's their fault if they choose to be offended by it. The sole thought of such a society makes me sad, really.

 

You know what else limits our freedom? Laws prohibiting violence. But they are there to stop people from using their complete freedom to ruin the freedom of others. In other words, people will be more free if they are not exposed to others using their freedom against them. In my opinion, offending words can stop others from being free as well.

Laws prohibiting violence protect people from real physical demonstrable harm.  It is protecting the freedom of people to not be injured.  If I punch someone on the nose, I know for a fact its going to cause them pain, and may break their nose.  If I call someone gay online, I don't know if they'll take it as a joke, shrug it off, be offended and commit suicide, or decide to have a rational discussion about the incident.  I have NO control over that.  The outcome is UNKNOWN, and only ONE of those possible outcomes could be construed as harmful, and there are several that can be construed as beneficial. 

As for suicide, nobody made that person hang themselves, cut themselves, or shoot themselves.  They were all actions the individual chose to take.  I don't like bullying, and the people who take part in it are asses, that's for sure.  But lets not pretend that someone calling you fat or gay forced you in any way to harm yourself.  Under your logic, the guy responsible for the suicide of an investor who lost his fortunes on the stock market rests on the ones responsible for buying his stock and ruining him, not the guy hanging from the rope himself.

If you can't handle any of my "verbal flaps", that is not my problem.  I have absolutely no control over how you or anyone else will react to what I say.  Therefore, any responsibility for actions as a result of how you react to what I say is yours (or theirs).  If I did have that kind of control, then you might have a case, but I'm not a psychic or psionic or any other sci-f-/fantasy creature capable of controlling others thoughts and feelings.  How you feel about what I say is your problem, not mine.