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A comment on The distinction between free speech as a legal right and cultural value.

Re:The distinction between free speech as a legal right and ... by glyphosate on Thursday December 01, 2022 @06:14PM (#33824401)
"I cannot contemplate human affairs, without laughing or crying. I choose to laugh. When People talk of the Freedom of Writing Speaking or thinking, I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists: but I hope it will exist, But it must be hundreds of years after you and I Shall write and Speak no more."

-John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1817

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6790

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Re:The distinction between free speech as a legal right and ... by Amezarak on Thursday December 01, 2022 @06:25PM (#33824528)
This is particularly ironic since Adams famously was responsible for the Alien and Sedition Acts and had people imprisoned for criticizing him.
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Re:The distinction between free speech as a legal right and ... by nonethewiser on Friday December 02, 2022 @02:43AM (#33827922)
Exactly why such values need to be enforced in a decentralized manner. Separation of powers goes a long way in this.
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Re:The distinction between free speech as a legal right and ... by glyphosate on Friday December 02, 2022 @10:12AM (#33831494)
Freedom of speech is an ideal - as such it is not easily achieved or maintained, even by the "best" of us - or those who claim to believe most in it.

If you read Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media you'll find this "irony" repeated throughout history. It's a problem of human nature, and that's what ideals arduously seek to overcome.

https://www.amazon.com/Free-Speech-History-Socrates-Social/d...

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