Our lovely originalist Supreme Court increasingly assures everyone that “free speech” is an absolute right. The law can never stop you from saying what you want to say. And most of us agree with most of that. But most of us also possess a degree of common sense that there are, in fact, limits.
One historic one has been that you are not allowed to shout “fire” in a crowded theater. But why not? Surely you can shout “fire” on a sidewalk. What difference between stating in a bar conversation that they “should be destroyed” and phoning in a bomb threat?
And then there is the weasel cop out of hate speech. You are apparently free to declaim “”someone should kill my bastard neighbor” but not “someone should kill my Chinese bastard neighbor.” Perhaps a degree of common sense, but tenuous legality.
Mostly we agree that people should be responsible for their actions and the consequences. And that implies that limits to free speech should be indexed to power. Provoking panic in a theater is one example, for everyone will crush at the exits. The more strongly people react as an individual speaks, the more that person is responsible for what happens.
The mafia tries to get away with lawyer arguments for the crime boss “hey ,he didn’t kill John Smith, he just suggested it would be great if someone did.” Free speech in action.
Good material for a movie crime drama. Very bad behavior for someone like a president.
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 