The entire point of freedom of speech is to protect the right to say offensive, disgusting things.
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There's protecting the right to be free from persecution from government and then there's forcing the rest of society to suppress their right to free speech in criticizing.
The whole name of the game is that people conflate freedom from government with freedom from everyone else. That just isn't the case. You live in a society and are "A" member of that society not "THE" member of that society.
They settled out of court b/c there was a 150% chance that one of their old white owners put something awful in an email that was going to turn up in discovery. Not even necessarily something relevant to Kapernick or even race, but something that would still be responsive to a discovery request and that would cost the NFL more in PR headache than Kapernick settled for.
THis is idiotic. If you only want free speech for speech you agree with, then you are not for free speech. That's fine I guess. Lots of countries don't really have free speech but range from tolerant to pleasant (although I think it's risky over time). But just come out and say you don't think free speech is important. Don't come out and say stupid shit like "I'm for free speech, but not tolerant of people saying disgusting things." If not just out of a desire to be honest do it so you don't sound or look like a dubmass.
I'm for you being able to say whatever you want without the government stopping you.
I'm not for you being able to say whatever you want and others not being allowed to ostracize and "cancel" you. It is their free speech to do so.
If you aren't for cancel culture then you aren't for free speech. Because that's how things work in a truly democratic free speech society.
Ok. But here the entity cancelling (via expulsion) would be the university, which is the government.
I do agree with you that the best way to combat speech with which you disagree is by private entities/citizens using their free speech rights to disagree. Nothing wrong with that. For example, if football players want to not play in response to speech with which they disagree, have at it. Nobody can force them to play.
ETA: Generally, and to johnson85 point below, I do think we are all better off with competing dialogue instead of, when we disagree with someone's views, advocating to have that person's views suppressed and removed from the dialogue.
Having other people force/coerce/convince government entities to punish somebody that says something you disagree with is not free speech. Popular speech doesn't need protection.
And cancel culture is not prohibited by the first amendment, but it's also not consistent with free speech. Free speech is a cultural value as well as a legal principle. If you believe in free speech as a cultural value, the response to repugnant speech or views is not to try to drive them from polite society, but to meet them in the marketplace of ideas with better views/ideas.
Yep. Which is why I think he'll win in court. Or more likely settle. The main overall point is to those misunderstanding what free speech truly is.
Johnson, we are talking about the right to free speech. Whatever cultural diatribe you are on can be contorted any which way. Still not law.
Belief in libertarianism is cute and all, but it only works based on a premise that is not true. That all men are created equal. This just isn't the case. Do libertarianism free speech culture does not work.
You're making the same disingenuous argument made by those on the other side.
No one is saying the people trying to 'cancel' others don't or shouldn't have a legal right to do it. They're just saying that it is bad for society. In the same way, you can defend someone's right to say terrible things while thinking that saying terrible things is bad for society. I have not seen anyone make an argument that the government should draft laws to disable cancel culture.
Did I make any sort of claim that it was one of the greatest ills in our society? Don't change the argument here.
All I'm saying is that yes, you have the right in the US to say basically anything you want so long as it isn't inciting violence. And others have the right to say what they want in response to that. So people on all sides can agree and disagree with anyone and anything they want. I think this kid at Kansas State is a moron and almost certainly a bad guy, and I will defend his right to say what he wants. I will also defend the right of any athlete or anyone else to say and do what they want in response (do meaning sit out, obviously not to attack him or anything). I will also defend their right to tell the university they want him expelled. I also don't think Kansas State has that legal right in this situation.
I think those constantly shouting at others and attempting to 'cancel' them are doing something counterproductive and in some cases hateful, but I will defend their right to do it. Having bad viewpoints said publicly is not a good thing for society in and of itself...but the alternative, which would be forcibly shutting down certain viewpoints, is far worse.
You have been arguing that it is consistent with free speech for the football team to be able to use their leverage to get a government entity to punish somebody for their speech. It is not other people that are misunderstanding what free speech is.
Belief in free speech is not limited to libertarians. The most vocal proponents of free speech used to be big government democrats (arguably it was just a tool since they agreed with a lot of speech that was unpopular, but if you take them at face value, they supported free speech). And you are as confused about libertarianism as you are about free speech. It is not dependent on all men being created; all men being equal in the eyes of the law/government regardless of birth is a belief and goal of more or less all variants of libertarianism. Men being equal in other ways is not some condition precedent or even related to libertarianism.