(08-13-2017, 03:33 PM)TJBender Wrote:

(08-13-2017, 01:51 PM)flsprtsgod Wrote: One of the 3 "acts of hate" that occurred was actually a Constitutionally protected right, but the story is all about how they are to blame. I guess blaming the victim is only ok when the victim is using unapproved content in their speech.

Ok, I'll be that guy...

Had the police done their [BLEEP] job like real police forces do at highly charged sociopolitical demonstrations, this would be a dialogue instead of a "bleeds, leads" story. That's not to excuse the protestors or the counter-protestors. The protestors message may well be Constitutionally protected, but it's also hate speech. A group of white males with adorable little tiki torches that would make Big Gay Al blush don't take to the streets shouting white supremacist slogans because they want to have an intelligent conversation. They do it because they want to intimidate and enrage, and they were extremely successful in doing so. The counter-protestors escalated things, yes, but it's hardly the first time a counter-protest has happened. How about the counter-protestors who show up every time the WBC rolls out their "God hates [BLEEP]" shtick at a military funeral? Or that time the Foo Fighters had to defuse a WBC counter-protest before their concert by driving out in a pickup truck playing "Never Gonna Give You Up"? Counter-protest is as protected as protest itself is. To restrict counter-protesting rights would be only slightly less American than putting a "free speech zone" next to the dumpster in the alley behind the cafeteria at UF.

There are a lot of reasonable people here, and you're one of them. That's why it worries me to see you, and others here, paying lip service to the dead while defending the actions of what would best be described as a loosely organized hate group. I'm not just calling you out. I'm calling out everyone here on all ends of the spectrum that have turned this board into an echo chamber where every topic devolves into the same "left vs. right, Trump vs. Clinton, racism vs. free speech" garbage. It's a microcosm of this country that we've taken what used to be a civil forum where, even if we disagreed, we'd symbolically shake hands and move on at the end of the thread, then start arguing with each other in the next one. People who routinely made wild, over-the-top accusations or statements used to be fairly rare (yes, I've done it a few times, particularly as it relates to police brutality), limited mostly to threads that Adam2012 happened to piss all over, but it doesn't take much digging in this thread alone to find examples of people that I used to hold in high regard (and still do) tumbling so dramatically down the slope.

Just stop and think about that. There are people in this thread defending a white supremacist march and denouncing the fact that black Americans stood up for themselves. Once upon a time, those roles were reversed, and people cheered for the white supremacists that broke up those black rights protests with firehoses, police dogs and ax handles. Are we really willing to let ourselves go back down that road?

This isn't about blame. [BLEEP] blame. This is about a decision that this country has to make, and we have to make it now. Are we truly the beacon of democracy and leader of the free world, as we've believed ourselves to be since WWII? Or did we never really make it out of the dark ages of the Civil War, and those repressed feelings are boiling over now that those harboring them have someone in office that they think sympathizes with them? I could ask the same question of a growing number of people on this board. If you feel like your voice isn't being heard, there's a right way and a wrong way to express it, and something being Constitutionally protected doesn't make it the right way.

Here's the thing, free speech is protected even if I don't like what they say. When you put in place a system that prevents free speech, especially political speech as this was, just because someone disagrees with it then you have tyranny. Let the dumb [BLEEP] assemble and talk, it's their right. What's not right is when counter-protesters show up and start rioting. I'd say that if it was the Klan, the Black Panthers, the Bernie Bros, the Trumpettes or anyone else. Lose respect for me if you must, but I'm for freedom in every case. Always.

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