Go to jail for 11 years. Link Let's see Henry spin this... And we have Barry and the fcc wanting to control the internets. Could it happen here? Mmmmm... Maybe.
Wordforge: Where we don't bother waiting for people to post -- we just predict their responses and mock our own predictions.
This is interesting, because it is quite clearly going too far, but it has made me stop and wonder where exactly the line of free speech should lie. To use the popular example, free speech shouldn't protect your right to yell fire in a movie theatre. In principle at least they are applying the same logic here.
^ Only someone like you could find away to compare a criticism on twitter to risking lives by yelling fire in a theater. People of intelligence know and understand the gaping chasm that lies between those two places.
To be clear yet again. I support much of what the government of Venezuela does. I also oppose some of what they do. This falls into the latter category and it's only if you require the kind of binary simplicity that many appear to that would cause you to think otherwise.
When government is elevated to the highest good and ultimate decision-maker, those who speak against it are not simply critics, but enemies of the state. It's a natural consequence of the belief that the state is and rightfully should be the mechanism for ordering society.
If you can't find a way to compare pretty much any two situations then you have very little imagination, to compare two things does not mean you have to conclude they are equal. Let's break my post down hey right: Look at that, I have started off by saying that this is obviously wrong. So anything that follows can be read in the light that it shouldn't change that fact in anyones mind. Again, I say that I disagree with it going this far. Right, here we get to the part you specifically seemed to take exception to. As I interpret it, the act of yelling fire in a theater isn't considered to be free speech because you are not conveying any information, but rather just trying to create danger that wouldn't otherwise have existed. If there is a fire, or there isn't but you have good reason to believe there is one, then there is nothing wrong with yelling fire in a theater. Now let's look at exactly what this guy was prosecuted for. It seems pretty obvious to me that at least in principle you can compare the two things. Someone yelling fire in a movie theater where there is none actually create the trouble themselves through saying that, as people run to escape. Someone yelling that a bank is about to collapse and everyone needs to withdraw their money now could along the same lines cause a bank run that ends up being a self fulfilling prophecy. There are obviously big differences, for one thing it is relatively easy to after the fact determine whether there was actually a fire in the theater or if the person yelling fire had good reason to believe there was one. In the case of predicting a bank collapse things are much more difficult to prove and it would be much easier for the person involved to demonstrate they had a legitimate belief that a collapse was coming. There is also the fact that yelling fire in a movie theater risks causing physical injury to people whereas in the case of a bank run the damage is purely financial. The differences when comparing the two situations are enough to convince me that while someone could do both with the same sinister motive, to try and prosecute them for it in this case would be foolish. The cost to genuine free speech would be too high. Plus I don't have the slightest trust for the Venezuelan government or their motivations.
It's not so much about free speech as it is about a tyrant loved by some Hollywood moonbats, who controls the media by nationalizing it and throwing those in jail who would dare critisize him. Imagine the outrage those moonbats would express if say Bush had put people in jail for critisizing him on twitter. Or if Bush wanted the FCC to control the internet stop any information that wouldnt be in his political favor.
This is what all communist dictators do Henry. Control the media, squash dissent, and control the people with brutality.
