Has freedom of speech died?
Freedom of Speech is first and foremost freedom of political speech, freedom to speak out against the monarchy without getting your head lopped off. This has evolved into general freedom of political speech meaning you can speak out against any government official, government policy or just the government in general. Flag burning is protected as freedom of political speech. Threats are not. Freedom of Speech was never intended to include social prohibitions against certain kinds of speech. Screaming obscenities in an old woman’s ear is still pretty much against society’s rules. Over time Freedom of Speech has included more and more of our social rules but still does not include all of them …. but you can still speak out against the Queen, the PM and all members of Parliament without fear of reprisal.
It’s not that freedom of speech in the US has died, a good listen to some of our TV preachers will prove that. Some of the things they say would land them in prison in any Nordic country for trying to incite violence. The kid made threats against the president. If one of us did such a thing here in the US we’d be in prison right now under the Patriot Act. No phone call, no lawyer, no open arraignment, all of it neatly sealed. Those threats are taken very seriously. They can’t deport a native born US citizen – there’s nowhere to deport them *to*. They can do this thing that has a special English word I’ve forgotten where they pack you off to a foreign land where you could possibly be tortured. I think it starts with a “R”. Guantanamo also isn’t our only overseas prison. I’m naturalized. They could absolutely strip me of my citizenship and bundle me on the first plane back to the far north of Norway. As far as no one being banned under Bush – wrong. Maybe not publicized for threats again
