First Amendment

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Fred Phelps is dead

Fred Phelps was a cruel man who believed in an evil hateful god.  He would protest the funerals of veterans and try to disrupt them with his “God Hates Fags” signs.  He probably did more to help the gay rights movement than anyone else.  fred_phelps

He was, however, not a criminal, and he helped bring about some important cases about Freedom of Speech.  It is terribly important to protect speech we hate.  After all, we don’t need to protect speech we all agree with.  It’s the controversial, angry and disruptive speech that needs protecting.

Some people have wished to protest his funeral as well.  I hope they do not.  Phelps had the right to his opinion no matter how vile. You fight back without stooping to his level.

His son Timothy Phelps apparently responded to one of my blog posts a while ago.  You can go here and read the comments and decide for yourself whether it really was him or just some troll.  Usually trolls give themselves away by being too over the top, so I wonder…

Anyway, while I certainly do not celebrate his death, I don’t mourn him, either.

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Duck dodgers in the 21st Century

Nobody’s First Amendment’s rights are being violated here.  Anyone who tells you otherwise just doesn’t know what they’re talking about.   daffy_duck_dynasty_by_michaelcrutchfield-d6m08qz

Mr. Duck Dynasty Guy has every right in the world to say whatever hateful things he wants to and there is nothing the government can do about it.

He doesn’t have the right to his own TV show.

If you work for someone, they can regulate your behavior when it relates to your job.  If your words or actions can make the company look bad, they can do something about it, and for  many big-paying jobs (such as TV star), that’s even in your contract.

The First Amendment prohibits the government from infringing on your speech.  It doesn’t protect you against all consequences of your speech.

But conservatives are up in arms over this issue.  These are the same people who cheered when liberal commentators Alec Baldwin and Martin Bashir were removed from MSNBC for things they said.  They  happily approved of radio stations removing the Dixie Chicks from their airwaves because of an interview they did.  And they loved it when Bill Maher lost his TV show for his comments.

This is different, though.  It must be.  I’m sure.  I mean, otherwise, these people would be gigantic hypocrites, right?

“But all he did was confirm his conservative Christian beliefs,” they counter.  (Personally, I can’t recall the part of the Bible where Jesus talked about how happy blacks were living under Jim Crow segregation laws.)  Nothing he said insulted these conservatives.

But is that the standard?  “As long as you don’t say anything to upset people who already think exactly like you, you’re fine”?

What if he had said “I think we should kill all gays and worship Hitler”? Would they have objected to him being removed then?

This is just a matter of degree, and the conservatives who are complaining weren’t personally upset by this so can’t understand how others could be.  (This helps to support to the whole “conservatives can’t feel empathy” theme — “It doesn’t affect or bother me personally so therefore it isn’t a problem.”)

This was a business decision.  A&E knew advertisers would start boycotting the show and they made a financial decision to take action.  That’s their decision to dodge the Duck.

And the First Amendment has nothing to do with it.