(03-07-2021, 10:39 PM)Adar Wrote: Americans used to believe in free speech.
Speech has consequences. It is perfectly legal to say that an elected public official is an idiot or a crook. I've said some very nasty things about Donald Trump and I am now saying nasty things about Andrew Cuomo. It's not all partisan. I've said unflattering things about former Detroit Mayor Kwame "Crook" Patrick and about former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Get the spotlight and your misconduct will be in the spotlight, whether you are a film star, pop musician, televangelist, academic, or pro athlete. Celebrities such as Lindsey Lohan or Paris Hilton who are famous without obvious reason find that when they get drunk and obnoxious, then such makes the news and looks bad. Maybe one can hide extreme misconduct with the aid of people in the Business, but eventually infamy overpowers ability and one goes from being the Beloved Bill Cosby into a convicted serial rapist whom just about everyone despises. Fame is the most overrated commodity in the world. You may have seen the moniker I attached to a certain star of talk radio: "Rash Libel". I have seen nastier names, but that one is fitting and family-friendly. He may have seen what I called him. That is fine with me!
Some people handle fame well. My suggestion to such people is to do nothing that attracts attention for the wrong reasons. OK, you can found a children's cancer hospital as did Danny Thomas, but that is his character. If I were a screen actor or pop musician I would live more like a businessman than like a participant in the celebrity circus. Showy indulgence is for schmucks. Criminal acts are far too risky for my taste. Drunkenness in public? That is for losers.
Bad consequences come when one uses speech in the furtherance of a crime. I obviously have no right to say "This is a stickup" in a bank. Bad consequences come when one uses speech in ways that abuse authority and trust. So let us say that I am teaching school and say that heroin is wonderful. Or I do accounting fraud and cover it up. Being paid to teach, to do the books, to command... that brings responsibility in return for some privilege.
There are certain offensive words that I do not say involving race, ethnicity, gender preference, religion, and some others. Some are simply ugly and make me look bad.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.