A question for Americans

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supersixfour

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Jul 16, 2009
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misterprickly said:
Freedom (speech or otherwise) is not only a myth but a joke in America.

Lets look at this "Free" and "Democratic" nation...

-It was built on the backs of slaves
-they killed natives for their land
-They BURNED witches, books, comics, films etc
-Jailed japanese americans during WW2
-"The COMMIE Hunt"
-Hippie beatings (and shootings)
-The patriot act
-Only "electoral" votes count in a federal election

That's free and democratic?
its free for those who aren't minorities, I'm american and I'm relatively indifferent to my country but its free because for the most part we can vote to change things (in theory anyway, there's private interests and other technicalities that make shit a bit more complicated) but on our system, in theory, i can vote to appoint someone who will represent the ideals that i most associate with, and in terms of speech, i can say whatever i want, provided I'm either in public or on a TV show with an appropriate rating. OUR COUNTRY IS NOT PERFECT, not saying it is but i am saying that painting a picture of us with such a broad brush isn't exactly fair. you bring up a very good point though, plenty of our history is tainted with hypocritical injustices that we can never out live, and our system is plenty corrupted.
 

Sovvolf

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Mar 23, 2009
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misterprickly said:
-They BURNED witches, books, comics, films etc
Little off-topic trivia here but no witches were ever burned (least not in America or Briton). Most witches that were actually convicted of witch craft were either hanged or in some cases, just given a fine.
 

TheYellowCellPhone

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Sep 26, 2009
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Are we allowed to say whatever we want: Mostly yes.
Does what we say earn negative consequences: Usually.

Where I live at least.
 

Typecast

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Jul 27, 2008
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Doesn't it depend more on what horse Rupert Murdoch is backing at any particular time?
 

Tanis

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Aug 30, 2010
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Nautical Honors Society said:
Random Name 4 said:
Samwise137 said:
As compared with many places in the world, where you might be shot for even uttering a complaint about someone, yes we do indeed have free speech. Do we have free speech as per the dictionary definition? Absolutely not.
So you have free-er speech?
Nail on the head my friend.

It may not be perfect, but it is better than a lot of other places.
Word.

How about someone from the Middle East or China talking crap about their government or saying anything that goes against Islam/State Religion.

Ask that Iranian girl Neda...O, wait...that's right.
She's dead.
 

smeghead25

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Apr 28, 2009
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zehydra said:
IMO, the only place where real free speech exists, is on the internet.
Good thing I live there then :p

Free speech doesn't entirely exist, we need some limitations on it, but mostly we should be allowed to say and experience what we want when we want as long as it doesn't negatively affect anyone else. Unfortunately, politicians seem to forget this and have decided that videogames are bad even though playing them does not negatively affect anyone else.
 

crudus

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Oct 20, 2008
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Haseo21 said:
Its because our government is overly sensitive and is scared of what will happen when someone speaks their mind.....and your like the 8th person to ask us that
It is actually the people (see scared white mothers). The government is just doing what people are yelling about at the time.
 

ApophisMP

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Oct 27, 2010
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" This country was built on the back of slaves" give me a break

and the Patriot act was and still is a good idea for the most part if you look at whats it tries to protect us from

Far better than President Failure's idea to censor the internet of content he and party doesnt like
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2010/100110Lendman.shtml
 

APSunder

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May 25, 2010
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According to the 1st ammendment we have the right of free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press, right to assemble, and right to a trial. Those rights, however, go away under the condition that you're insulting someone or a particular race, culture, lifestyle etc. to the point where they'd do something like want to kill themselves (e.g. the gay guy at Rutgers that killed himself because someone was videotaping him having sex with a man and streaming it online), or if the material's deemed offensive to a group. These groups can include age groups, and so, if a video game or film is deemed inappropriate for a kid and it's found that they can get access to it the government reserves the right to ban it. Same thing goes for if it's racially offensive, anti-gay etc. That said, I don't think video games will be banned for a long time. If there are some games that are banned, I think it'll be more like Dead or Alive Xtreme Volleyball with cheat codes before it's God of War.
 

Pebkac

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May 1, 2009
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Comparing freedom in your own country to that in Afghanistan, North Korea, China, some fucked up African country, etc, is not really setting the bar high...
 

zombays

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Apr 12, 2010
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Yeah, the free speech is slowly degrading, since court is letting one too many snips in the constitution happen. And the cities aren't the only place where there's INTENSE crime now, 20 houses in my neighborhood were robbed over the summer, but those naive bastards deserve it.
 

Sovvolf

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Father Time said:
misterprickly said:
Freedom (speech or otherwise) is not only a myth but a joke in America.

Lets look at this "Free" and "Democratic" nation...

-It was built on the backs of slaves
That's not exactly unique to us.
Nope, however that doesn't take away the fact that it was. Many places were built on the backs of slaves, Rome, Greece, Egypt... The list goes on. However I'd still place it as old shame for America.

Father Time said:
misterprickly said:
-They BURNED witches, books, comics, films etc
No witches were ever burned, they were hanged, but this was before the country was founded. And I'd like to see proof of film burning and comic burnings
Also, America wasn't actually all that bad with Witch hanging. An estimate of 37 executions happened in America. Germany was the worse for it with numbers like 17,324 ? 26,000 on the estimate executions.
 

Misterian

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Oct 3, 2009
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The way I see it, I think people are missing the point of free speech in the U.S, the government is making a big deal on the matter of media when it shouldn't.

The true key to enforce free speech, in my opinion, is to avoid making a big deal about something when you should avoid it, the problem is that some of us Americans have trouble with what to take notice and what to let slide.
 

WOPR

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Aug 18, 2010
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Random Name 4 said:
Just a question, do you really have free speech if the government decides what speech is protected or not? For instance, the government can decide that videogames aren't protected as free speech, and ban them. What's to say the government can't decide that films aren't protected as free speech. So my question for the day is, is your speech truly protected?
No our speech isn't free but films went through this process already (as did books)
they all passed

so if this passes it should be the end of it

EDIT: Pass OR NOT (sorry I mis-worded that I'm REALLY tired... I hope it fails)
 

MaVeN1337

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Feb 19, 2009
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Before you read this; Yes I'm American. Yes I hate it.

The American Government is a hypocritical corrupt train wreck. Any rules that are in place can be over ridden by any random ass whole who can out smart the general public, Which trust me, Is NOT very hard to do. We have the worst school systems in the world, and no one can tell there ass from there elbow.

Before you shit all over this comment I'm aware that there are plenty of smart Americans, but at least 70% of everyone born and living in the US, Does not know jack diddly squat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE