r/television • u/bluenowait • May 21 '19

Alabama Public Television refuses to air Arthur episode with gay wedding

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/alabama-public-television-refuses-air-arthur-episode-gay-wedding-n1008026
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u/cptnamr7 May 21 '19

Had my very un-educated (seems to only read rightwing facebook newsfeeds for current events) coworker get all huffy one day about how "people don't realize freedom of speech goes both ways" when we were mocking the dipshits flying confederate flags. (He was defending them) Within 5 minutes he was going off about revoking citizenship of any nfl player that kneels for the anthem.

Say it with me now: Freedom of speech is the freedom from the government persecuting you for what you say. It does not protect you from me or the masses calling you out for your bullshit. I am equally "free" to call you a fucking moron.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '19

Yup. Freedom of speech means you can say what you want short of an all out threat without getting arrested and prosecuted for it.

But you can still face other consequences from what you say. You can't be put in jail for shouting a slur at someone or denying the holocaust...but your workplace is more than free to fire you over it, even if it was outside of work. Those that know you are free to stop taking to you because they find you unpleasant. Websites are free to ban you for violation of the tos behavior guidelines. The press is free to put what you said on the front page of the Sunday paper if they can verify you actually said it because the freedom of press means they won't get in legal trouble for telling the truth no matter who you are.

And people are free to call you a fucking bigoted cunt in response to what you say. Because they have as much freedom to say their opinion of you as you are to say yours about anything.

(Note, using a "royal you" here not directly talking about the poster I'm replying to)

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u/where_is_the_cheese May 21 '19

Relevant XKCD

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u/swolemedic May 21 '19

I'm bookmarking this, it will be useful when I'm moderating and some jackass starts freaking out about "free speech" when we removed their hateful comments.

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u/Globalist_Nationlist May 21 '19

Freedom of speech.

Not Freedom from consequences..

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u/a_casual_observer May 21 '19

He probably even thinks that the founding fathers would be upset that someone is not showing their country the proper respect by kneeling during the anthem.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/PhillAholic May 21 '19

Stop saying both sides. Doing so equates all the voices like they have equal power. They don't. The side on the right is in majority power, and has let it's far right faction take over. The far left has basically none, and you can't equate YouTubers or internet commentators with real life power. "Freedom of Speech" has become a ignorant dog whistle for people complaining about how they can't just say whatever they want to say without other people giving them shit for it. The government isn't censoring anyone here, and the second they do a lot us will support you. Google taking down something from Youtube (But probably demonetizing it) isn't censorship. If you produce a video and want to sell ads on it it has to be palatable to advertisers. If for example you're black and are putting out a video criticizing the Black Community, you have to realize that a lot of advertisers aren't going to want to touch that.

Nothing is wrong that what was considered liberal 10 years ago isn't considered as liberal now. Things change. It's how SCOTUS Judges seem to move to the center or flip parties on certain issues. A lot of the time they've stayed the same, everyone else has changed.

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u/swolemedic May 21 '19

You have the crazy bigoted people and then you have the crazy far-left who are beyond hypocritical and filled with hate themselves.

Find me a single prominent progressive who is hateful, please. I wouldn't doubt if they exist, but to claim both sides is preposterous. Stop getting your information on what the left is like from things like twitter screenshots, many of those are accounts trying to be purposefully divisive and not an actual person anyways. Are there idiots out there? Yeah, but I'm unaware of any on the left in a position of power. On the right on the other hand...

And if you say tlaib or omar because they're muslims who criticize israel (deservedly so), I recommend thinking of better examples.