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A comment on Canadian Comedian Fined $42,000 for Telling a Joke. Parent comment

Re:Canadian Comedian Fined $42,000 for Telling a Joke by clinta on Friday August 19, 2016 @12:24PM (#12321190)
Should governments be punishing insulting or giving offense? That's a very scary prospect in my mind.

Could we even have meaningful political dialog if, for example, it was illegal to intentionally offend Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?

The idea of a right to not be insulted has scary implications.

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Re:Canadian Comedian Fined $42,000 for Telling a Joke by zeveb on Friday August 19, 2016 @12:58PM (#12321480)
> Could we even have meaningful political dialog if, for example, it was illegal to intentionally offend Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?

That's actually exactly what Citizens United was about … a group of people were trying to show a film critical of Mrs. Clinton, and the federal government attempted to punish them for it. That's why there was a big push in 2014 to repeal the First Amendment: politicians wanted to make it illegal to oppose politicians.

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Re:Canadian Comedian Fined $42,000 for Telling a Joke by TazeTSchnitzel on Friday August 19, 2016 @12:41PM (#12321343)
A line has to be drawn. There is no right to not be insulted per se, but persistent abuse and harassment of an individual cannot be allowed.
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Re:Canadian Comedian Fined $42,000 for Telling a Joke by DanBC on Friday August 19, 2016 @01:37PM (#12321814)
> Should governments be punishing insulting or giving offense? That's a very scary prospect in my mind

Luckily they're not doing that. They're waiting for the offence to cause harm, and then they step in.

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