this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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Free speech is rooted in the founding idea that you can speak or print your opinion about a government without a government’s reprisal.
Like most rights, these are codified and then matured or refined over time in the form of amendments.
I would very much like to change the name of the 14th amendment for all that it matters, since it now protects corporate personhood over individuals, but I digress.
Free speech is, again like other rights, not to be enshrined where it would allow you to do harm to others. You have the right to preach in an airport or say the government is hiding aliens or that the president is a shit bird. You do not have the right to cause a panic by screaming fire or bomb, as this had the very real harm to other’s safety in crowded public places. You can’t scream fire in a theater, for the same reason.
The most simple way to put this is that your rights end at your nose, not other people’s noses.
You can’t harm other’s freedom to operate unmolested, and where we draw that line is the foundation of English law.