savvymavvy:

eelanorforcongress:

One thing I’m kind of surprised hasn’t been mentioned in all the conversations about freedom of speech recently is that yeah, the first amendment grants freedom of speech, but other court cases since then have qualified what that means. In Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire in 1942, the Supreme Court ruled that “fighting words” are not protected under the first amendment. This means that if your speech is inciting someone to violence, it’s not free speech. And if what the nazis in Charlottesville were saying aren’t fighting words I don’t know what the hell is.

Free speech also doesn’t mean:

• Free from consequences speech. You say some jack ass shit, your ass may get fucked up thats how that works.
• Free from businesses telling you to stfu and silencing you speech. First amendment only means gov’t can’t stop you or silence you. Doesn’t mean anything about a private or public business deciding that your ass is too god damn ridiculous to deal with so shutting down what you’re saying.
• slightly less relevant to fighting words but still important free dangerous speech. You don’t get to shout dangerous and false information and not deal with legal repercussions. Thanks Schenck v. United States. 

So yeah. free speech is great. but we don’t have free say whatever tf you want and no one can do anything to you no matter what it is you’re saying speech.