Here.
The star of Duck Dynasty was suspended after he made some anti-gay comments. The whole rightwing is up in arms about this, saying that he said nothing offensive at all, and his entire crime was that of being a Bible-believing Christian. Lots of other characters are supporting his “free speech rights,” which is completely asinine.
The truth?
You have no free speech rights in a lot of ways. The only right you have is to say whatever you want and not go to jail over it or have your speech censored or confiscated in some way. That’s all that free speech covers! That’s it.
On the job, you have no free speech rights. Many an employee has been canned for having a loose tongue. You can get fired at work for flapping your mouth in just about any way at all. If it offends your boss or your co-worker, you’re canned. Unin joobs may have some protections against this.
In the media and entertainment, actors, musicians, authors, journalists, researchers, etc. have all been canned for flapping their mouths. Agencies say they will not represent a certain author anymore. Ad agencies fire actors from ad campaigns when they mouth off. Directors say they won’t be hiring you again. So it goes. Many actors are forced to apologize for inflammatory statements.
Musicians face boycott threats from fans, radio stations refuse to play their songs and they get dropped from their record companies. All because of opening their big fat mouths.
Authors also face boycotts. Book stores may refuse to carry your books. Your publisher may dump you. Etc.
When journalists open their big fat traps, the result is often that they are fired from their jobs at the newspaper, magazine, TV or radio station. Many journalists are also forced to bow down to the offended.
Researchers are often fired by think tanks for publishing papers that offend people. The recent Richwine controversy is an example of that. A researcher authored a paper stating that Hispanics have lower IQ’s than White people and we should be careful about importing too many of them, which of course is a perfectly rational and truthful thing to say. Nevertheless, the Heritage Foundation fired him from his job as a researcher at the institution over the ensuing uproar.
When scientist James Watson could not keep his mouth shut about the low intelligence and poor work skills of Africans and US Blacks, a number of his future speaking engagements were canceled. I believe he was also thrown off of some board he was on.
See what I mean? Freedom of speech only means that speech cannot be stopped from being broadcast or published. Broadcast speech may not be cut off or banned, and broadcast stations may not be shut down. Written speech may not be confiscated and distribution of it must be allowed. Those who engage in broadcast or written speech may not be arrested for such.
Other than that, there are all sorts of bad things that can happen perfectly legally to those who won’t shut the fuck up.
Bottom line is that I support A & E 100% in the firing of Phil Robertson. He said some pretty nasty things about gay people – things that even I think are nasty. It’s now turning out that that is not the first time he has dogged on gays. And he has also said some stupid “dem niggers sure were happy in dem fields before those Northern troublemakers (civil rights activists) got them all stirred up.” That’s pretty damned offensive along the lines of, “But boy those Black slaves sure were happy!” It’s a crappy thing to say, and it’s very insulting to Black people. Not only that, but it’s not even true.
Yep, Phil Robertson has a right to spout off about any offensive thing that he wishes to.
And just the same, A & E has a the same exact right to fire his ass over that very same offensive speech.
I am really sorry that this has become a football in the Culture War. And I do not see how voting Republican means that TV stations won’t do this anymore or that actors will get to bash gays all they want to. How does voting Republican change any of that?
Down with Phil Robertson!
Support A & E!
