Sources are reporting that French authorities questioned an 8-year-old boy for refusing to observe a minute of silence at school and for expressing solidarity with the gunmen of the Charlie Hebdo attack.
I don’t get it. Do you want free speech or not? In America, children are allowed to refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance. We don’t throw them in jail for it. Part of the right to free speech is the right to say things that are offensive and untimely.
Apparently, both the child and his father were summoned for questioning. I do believe that the child probably heard from his parents that depicting Muhammad is wrong, and may have been repeating what he overheard at home. Does this make it okay for police to summon an 8-year-old for questioning? Isn’t that rather absurd?
It seems that France values free speech only when it is suitable to them. If Charlie Hebdo is a hero for publishing offensive content in the name of free expression, then how in the hell are people from the other perspective criminals? It may be stupid and offensive for some people to praise the murderous terrorists who killed innocent people, but it is equally stupid and offensive to throw such people in jail for their praise.
This blatant hypocrisy only further solidifies my belief that free speech is an absolute right, and should only lead to legal consequences when a person’s speech directly harms others. A post on Twitter does not come close to this threshold, nor does an 8-year-old’s refusal to observe 60 seconds of silence.
Yeah, that strikes me as weird. If you’re going to be ga-ga for free speech, even if it’s offensive, you have to take ***unpopular ***free speech with popular free speech. It’s part of the bargain.
Not uncommon in Europe. But they come from a different tradition what with 2 World Wars fought there. We (Americans) might feel differently about Free Speech if we had a similar experience. Security vs Freedom. We Americans have been unusually secure wrt wars, so we tip a bit more towards Freedom, but human nature is the same the world over.
I remember my first trip out of the country, where I visited the Anne Frank house and saw a display about neo-Nazis. Part of the display was a condemnation of the US for allowing neo-Nazis to keep doing their neo-Nazi thing.
That’s the day I realized the world is not America.
Not just France. Not every country in the world is on the same page with the US. We may be in slightly different pews, but European Countries and the US are in the same Church. If you’ll pardon my religious reference.
I don’t believe Confederate rah-rah-ing should be illegal. I really, really wish it were a lot less socially acceptable than it is, though. Especially when people with no sense of history whatsoever alternate between “USA! USA!” and displaying a Confederate flag.
But one would be wrong to argue that the US Civil War was on par with the 2 World Wars in terms of civilians killed. That is the point. The former was not only less sever, it was further back in time.
Civilian Deaths in the US Civil War: ~200,000 (no official data, but that’s on the high end of most estimates)
Just out of curiosity, what IS the traditional European response to the slippery slope arguments Americans use to justify the breadth of freedom of speech we have? “That wouldn’t happen”?
I think Europeans trust the government more than the folks in the US do. For instance, they look to the government to protect them from religion, while we look to government more to protect our religious freedom. The US didn’t have the history of “Diving Right of Kings” and the collusion between Church and State that was so common in Europe, and especially in France.
The true answer is Americans are full of shit. We talk a good game but actions speak louder than words. After one terrorist attack, we bent Lady Liberty over and shoved the Patriot Act up her ass. If there were multiple, on-going terrorist bombings and shootings, U.S. Government would suspend First Amendment rights with broad, popular support toot sweet.
I usually Can. Not. Stand. jingoistic “America, Fuck Yeah!” posturing, but this is one time when I have to say that I am an unabashed American supremacist. The right to freely express your opinion is absolutely contingent on the right of hateful, ignorant assholes to express theirs.