By (O)CT(O)PUS
Our country is unique in practicing the most liberal form of free speech in the world. Yet, the right to free speech is by no means absolute. With freedom comes responsibility. Civil and criminal laws govern our conduct. The right to free speech does not include fraud, imminent incitement, perjury, theft of intellectual property, sedition, slander, smut, or breaches of national security.
European nations guarantee free speech with a few notable exceptions. Invasions of privacy, hate speech against ethnic or racial minorities, any infringement of human rights, or Holocaust denial … these are prohibited and punishable by law.
In America, bigots may denigrate any nationality or minority group with impunity. Holocaust denial - no matter how repugnant - is legal. There is no statutory right to privacy in our Constitution.
Political speech removes many constraints imposed by civil law. Appeals to prejudice. Character assassination. Deception. Defamation. Racism. The derogation of women and disabled persons. Bombast and vulgarity have become standard operating procedure. In America of 2016, political discourse has devolved into a contest of madmen for the primacy of the sewer where no smear goes to waste.
Cyberspace is the most lawless place of all. Anonymous trolls will commandeer online discussions. Scammers will spam your email box with cons and malware. Hackers seek ways to steal your identity. Bullies have driven vulnerable teenagers to suicide. Everywhere in Cyberspace, there are predators and stalkers, sadists and sociopaths.
Years ago, Kathy Sierra, a popular author of computer books, was forced to cancel all public appearances after a group of men — calling themselves the “Mean Kids” — threatened her with gang rape, violence, and death.
Last month, Illma Gore, a Los Angeles based artist, received thousands of death threats after her controversial portrait of Donald Trump went viral on the Internet. Last week, she was ambushed and savagely beaten by an unknown assailant.
Last month, Marcus Owens, an honor student at the University of Iowa, was assaulted by three white men yelling racial epithets. He sustained multiple injuries including deep gashes, broken teeth, and a damaged eye socket.
Intimidation is not free speech when minorities, women, and other targeted groups are menaced in their homes and forced to live in fear. Negative stereotypes create toxic environments that compromise the rights, opportunities, and freedom of innocent people.
In every community, there are unhinged hotheads hooked on adrenaline who will lash out in anger, often without provocation. Taunts and threats serve only one purpose: To manipulate and dominate those whom they hate and condemn them to silence. Here is a point to keep in mind: Any threat of assault is tantamount to real assault — and the province of law enforcement.
No community is immune to controversy. In Florida last month, students from Vero Beach High School distributed a racist flier with a Confederate flag. The Indian River County School Board rejected calls to ban the flag and amend the School Code of Conduct. “We can’t legislate morality,” claimed Superintendent Mark Rendell.
Yes, we can. Rendell and the Board used bad faith arguments to kick the perennial can down the road. Thousands of years of human history — from Hammurabi and Moses to the present — teach this lesson: Codes and commandments are the oldest forms of behavioral modification.
How can a symbol of racial hatred and persecution engender a positive and safe learning experience? It can’t. After the murder of nine parishioners in Charleston last year, the South Carolina legislature voted overwhelmingly to remove the Confederate flag from state grounds. In contrast, local officials chose moral cowardice and fiduciary incompetence.
With each passing year, we drive all standards of civility and honesty further into a savage wilderness. We equate freedom with excess and excess with freedom. We covet freedom but spurn responsibility. Reckless rhetoric and sleazy soundbites are the signature traits of self-styled demagogues who abuse the institutions of democracy and undermine democracy itself.
As parents, citizens, and voters, we have a mutually shared responsibility to raise the standards of public discourse. We can start by making better choices.
I love to hear that we can't legislate morality from a party that has been attempting to do so for all of American history, from dancing on Sunday to talking about breast cancer on the internet. I believe Barry Goldwater used that to oppose the civil rights act along with people like George Wallace and Orval Faubus. Of course it all hinges on teh ideosyncratic definition of morality. You certainly can legislate agains causing harm to people or their property and that's what most of the law is about. You can legislate against inciting others to commit crimes as well and you can legislate against false witness and slander and libel and defamation of character and indeed we always have since laws were first written down in Ancient Sumeria and probably before that.
ReplyDeleteThe 4th Amendment provides us, or at least it's supposed to, protection against government intrusion on our privacy, but of course technology coupled with the way we put everything on the internet makes real privacy illusory. It seems true that we have little enough protection against threats from private parties. I've witnessed it myself when a neighbor threatened to kill another neighbor in front of several witnesses as part of an attempt to drive him out of the community. Nothing came of it, the judge wouldn't even grant a restraining order.
Florida has made some progress regarding penalties for "terroristic threats" but the objective was about bomb threats and the like. "I'll kill you, you damned faggot" really doesn't seem to get the attention of the courts.
We are now subject to more and more rhetoric aimed at producing outrage and hate. We are more easily able to create communities based on outrage and hate and fuel the fires with lies and false accusations and to perpetuate the kind of mentality that threatens and carries out violence. The "if you agree, please share" hatebits we see on facebook circulate and grow for years and years after the more sane of us know they're lies. It can't end well because it's become the backbone of our politics and is such a distraction from important issues that we elect people with no qualification except crookedness and hate.
Yes, it is a savage wilderness and we make wild animals look pretty tame these days, but as to elevating discourse, I have less than no hope. We have given dangerously stupid and angry people a far louder voice than the wise and informed and intelligent and those are few enough anyway. We don't have the kind of matrix in which democracy can flourish and I see Fascism in our future. I see more and more anger and ignorance and probably the violence that goes with it and I'm wondering if my better choice isn't the one my ancestors made: get the hell out.
There is not much more to say, if anything.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post (O)CT(O)PUS. Likewise for the Captain's comment.
This post will appear in the Op-Ed section of the Treasure Coast Press Journal tomorrow, Sunday May 15, 2016. The Journal was recently purchase by the Gannett chain of newspapers (includes U.S. Today), which will syndicate the above article in all editions (late May 2016).
ReplyDeleteThe Zone needs a "like" button under posts and comments (and one that's not associated with Facebook).
ReplyDeleteHa! I always think about having a like button. Many times the writing is so good and complete I don't have anything to add so I look for the like button and there isn't one! FB has ruined us! :)
ReplyDelete