Freedom of speech (was:this is why i hate ethics class)

[KraQ]

Freedom of Speech is a touchy subject. There's a place for it, and there isn't it.

No... no.. no no no no!
Freedom of speech means you can talk about it whenever the hell you want. That's just like these schools that will only allow protests in designated "speech freedom zones" Screw that!

Freedom of speech is something that is becoming increasingly rare in US, and I'm sad to see this happen. It's just like the quote header on HTS. The one about saying the words the founding fathers used is a fast way to get labeled as dangerous or whatever. It's true.. speech is no longer free. And there's nobody who can pay the bail.

First off, my apologies. I wrote that at 1:30 in the morning, so my thoughts weren't all together.
I didn't mean that sometimes we need to shut up because "our leaders" are talking. I meant, sometimes we need to investigate before we jump the gun and start protesting.
For the most part, the teacher mentioned in the beginning of this thread, yeah a bit of a cunt.
She had no right to ask such a question of opinion, and then mark him wrong. Thirdly, being an ex-American, I know what you mean about the loss of freedom of speech, but this has happened because everyone was so afraid of terrorists, that C&C could pass whatever the hell he wished. Yeah, a few people knew it was BS, but a few people don't take on a nation of scared individuals telling them that their leaders are going to harm them.
As for jumping the gun. Sometimes we need to listen very carefully as to what is said or asked before we jump up and protest. Then again, we need to protest the right things too.

[Not-as-of-yet]

Is it even POSSABLE to be wrong in ethics class? I mean ethics arn't based on logic *Hugs logic* so we can say what ever we want! Why I could say its ethical to eat other humans and come up with good reasons why I'm right!

More to the point, how do you teach ethics? Stab one of the kids so they know for a fact that stabbing people hurts?

[Mentalikryst]

in my ethics class there was a true or false question that was "should free speech ever have limitations?"
i of course said it should not, and i got the question wrong. i am (of course) very pissed of that she is allowed to mark me on whether my views match her views.

anyway, i was wondering what you guys thought on the subject of if conditional "free" speech is even free speech.

Is it legal for her to mark you down for that. It seems like she violated your freedom of speech by not letting you voice your opinion. If you asked 1000 people the answer to that question you would get between 975 and 1000 different answers. There is not right or wrong answer, it is just an opinion.

[tkdhkdmaster]

in my ethics class there was a true or false question that was "should free speech ever have limitations?"

First of all, that is not a true/false question.

Second, if your teacher is asking you for your opinion, well of course you should argue the results. However, if the question is "Should free speech have limitations?" and not "Do you think free speech should have limitations?" you obviously got the question wrong. There should be limitations on everything, including free speech, don't you agree? Think about the classic example of someone yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded movie theater. Wouldn't you want to be protected from offensive speech or expression? What about when your "rights" to free speech impinge on an other's right to privacy or safety? What about offensive hate speech?

Really, sidebottom, really? The OP obviously got the question wrong because they dissagree with you? You said if the question was about his opinion he can't really be wrong, but if they disaggree with your opinion they are wrong? Come on "everything should have limitations" is highly opinionated so the OP doesn't have to agree with you. Which makes his answer still acceptable.

[Wootz]

The government shouldn't censor speech, I just feel people should have the decency to act appropriate under certain circumstances.


Your teacher is kinda crappy.

[Charlieace]

freedom of speech is what i believe to be that liberty of stating anything without prosecution. this is not to say without consequence however.

some people confuse censorship with restricting freedom of speech. if someone is arrested for making a speech against the government, that is restricting freedom of speech. if someone can't say fuck on the tv, thats censorship.

your teacher was wrong in this act, and personally i think you should take it over their head to...the board of education maybe?

[The7thGuest]

I think one of the major problems is where to draw the line between freedom of speech and forcing your speech upon others.

If I want to go ahead and say "I think person A is a whore" nobody should be able to contest that, I made it clear that it's my opinion, if I rock up to other people and say "Person A is a whore" then it's different.

And unless I can prove that said person performs sexual activities in exchange for money I might have a hard case of slander against me. I think that's also where the whole debate about limitations come in, freedom of speech in my opinion anyway, should be about the 'I think' in which case I should be able to say anything I want to, like "I think person A is a whore" but as soon as I make a general statement instead of expressing my opinion, it gets messy and this is where freedom of speech is a hard subject.


But getting back to what I actually wanted to say, I'd like to enquire about the question the teacher marked wrong...
How much weight did the question have in the test? I mean did it count 1 or 10 marks?

I just have a funny feeling the answer should have been a debate instead of a true/false answer? I can't for the life of me imagine any other reason a question like that would be marked wrong?