opinions that incite violence vs. criminal acts
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Posted by John Furedy on 02:35:16 2006/06/19
In Reply to:
Re: Use appropriate weapons for different battlefields posted by Gayl
Gayl,
Just about all orators who persuaded people to revolt for their freedom except possibly Ghandi incited violence (e.g., Thomas Paine: "Give me liberty or give me death"). so a free society has no grounds for censoring these people, or keeping them out of the country.
Your example of citizens currently being jailed for making jokes about bombs at airports is currently a criminal act, because given the terrorist threats that abound, such jokes cause delays for passengers, and are therefore criminal acts. A classic example of such criminal acts is shouting fire in a crowded room when the shouter knows that there is no fire.
And to reply to Al's post at the same time, this is not a matter of showing that one is "open minded". I am not at all "open minded" about Muslim or any other sort of terrorism, or of politically correct ideologies. But I am serious about Sharansky's distinction between free and fear societies, and this distinction applies far beyond any "classroom".
All the best, John
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