The 1st amendment of the U.S. constitution appears to be the last champion of freedom of speech in the world. Will 2019 be the year when freedom of speech is finally eradicated?
This post will likely offend regressive leftists.
I agree with most of what Pat Condell said in this video, especially about the educational system in the USA. Although he acknowledges that the first amendment applies only to government interference with speech, he equivocates on his use of the word censorship in applying it to social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Those companies created their platform, own it and have every right to determine what type of speech they allow on their platform.
Free speech, as protected by the first amendment of the Constitution in the USA, is our most important freedom. Without it, we would lose our country, in my opinion. And, it is under attack, both from the political left, as mentioned in the video, but also from the political right. We now have a president who doesn't even value it and openly threatens media organizations that don't agree with him.
Good points. It might be worthwhile to debate regulating the social media platforms as utilities, and making them subject to the 1st amendment.
There is a big difference between free speech and hate mongering. By the way the first amendment is not the last bastion of free speech. France,Italy,Sweden, UK, NZ and many other countries have free speech, unlike in some states in the US where there are laws that if you criticise Israel you may end up in jail, or how about if you do business with countries that the US doesn’t like the same can happen.