Protestantism

» Brian Tubbs - Caution here

PaperTurtle, there's wisdom (as usual) in what you're saying here. The Founding Fathers warned about this. Many of them talked about how people must police their own moral conduct. If they cannot, then government will get bigger. You're making the same point here.

HOWEVER...I want to draw a line of distinction. Citizens organizing to pressure a media company to fire a shock jock is one thing. I think it's fine to do that. It's all part of corporate accountability. But it seems like you're opening the door here for the government - the GOVERNMENT - to start passing laws to regulate what citizens can and cannot say. Now, to some extent, that is already done. We can't yell "Fire" in a crowded theater, etc. And there are noise disturbance laws, public disturbance regs, etc. BUT...

Let's be careful. We need to use caution. There's a slippery slope here that we need to avoid. I do NOT like the idea of the government deciding the content of my speech. Nor do I like the idea of its shadow hovering nearby, threatening to step in, if I don't clean up my act. (I am using the personal pronoun even though I'm pretty sure I can safely say that I've never engaged in hate speech or anything like it - but what happens when definitions change, and who makes those definitions?)

We just need to be careful here. Real careful.