I can't quite work out what the BBC's trying to say* here: How free speech can get you fired and I quote:In America, everyone has the right to free speech. But legally spoken remarks often have severe consequences - as the baseball coach who praised Fidel Castro has now discovered.
But I imagine, if you go bad-mouthing your boss on twitter (a legal publishing venue) it might go against the terms of your work contract somehow (no, I haven't examined all work contracts), you might get him a bit pissed off and he might sack you.
Sure, but it's a lot more insidious than that, isn't it?
How so?
More and more, the hired-hand workforce has moved over to a corporate-slave workforce, and those corporations really like to tie up their employees in so-called Constitution-busting Non Disclosure Agreements. An NDA is something like a more work-localised version of the Official Secret's Act or some immoral pledge to an alumnus. You sign it, you're theirs.
In Japan, for example (where the best corporate slaves live, you have freedom of speech iff (that's if and only iff)) you're out drinking at the invite of your boss, after legal hours have elapsed - though you're technically still in a 'work environment'. Oh, it's all so ugly and scruffy, law. So, "Oh, has the horse bolted again, darling?"
In principle, Freedom of Speech is your friend. You're gonna be able to shoot your clever (concerned (justifiably aggrieved or just plaing contented)) mouth off and the worst you'll get is a few new friends or a few new enemies. Freedom of Speech is gonna let everyone know exactly how you think and feel, and that might be a really good thing on a LLW or Less Legal World.
Seriously, people are being murdered on the streets DAILY for the 'free speech' they thought they 'legally' were entitled to. They forgot about the work-clause, the slave agreement, that dictates where your rights went. Hint: it's the toilet. Toil. Et. They forgot that Freedom to Lie was insanely implicit in that amendment, Freedom to Betray, Freedom to Conspire, to Engineer, to Amorally Impede, to Ruthlessly Punish and corporate competitor, person or company.
Rule of Law.
At my most paranoid-apprehensive, I can only guess that the Freedom Of Speech amendment to the American Constutition was SPECIFICALLY INSERTED to allow so-called Free Speech Advocates (both individual and company) to SELF-INCRIMINATE in a way that would stop them benefitting from the machinery of the empire should they 'flap their lip'. Freedom Of Speech seems to be nothing more than a legal target you can choose to PAINT ON YOURSELF for assassination at a later date, by clever legal means.
* Did the BBC (in that article above) blagtantly suggest that we should BAN freedom of speech from the USA? Happened a looooooong time ago, both here and in the USA. It's called Mercantilism. It's called Corporatism. It's called Empire. You signed onto that Private Gulag; therefore, you're it's bitch.
