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All-In [27287]
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1st Amendment right or Treason?
Jan 15, 2021, 12:39 PM
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Full disclosure I am fairly young (36). I understand the importance of the constitution and bill of rights and free speech. I don’t understand how it is being interpreted throughout the last 100 years. I know it has become a very complex argument but something tells me if I rode up to Ol George Washington’s house...or any of the founding fathers for that matter...and pulled out an American flag and set it on fire, threw it on the ground, stomped it, and shouted burn the capital down, burn it all down! I would have been tried convicted and hanged for treason. Can somebody explain to me now how this behavior is deemed constitutionally protected?
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All-In [46795]
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Who's doing the punishing? Government or private party?
Jan 15, 2021, 12:44 PM
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if government, covered under 1st amendment. If private party, not.
With the exception of legitimate threat of injury or bodily harm.
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Hall of Famer [24448]
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I think you're right, deferring to lawyers here. I would add
Jan 15, 2021, 1:07 PM
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that the 1st Amendment reflects what was a cultural value, lived privately as well as publicly. We seem to be losing it, as evidenced by the number of times we have to note the difference between public and private. On one hand we want a baker to be compelled to write a certain thing on a cake he was otherwise happy to sell to a customer, but on the other hand we want social media companies to ban posts we don't like. The more we have to say, "but a private company can do that" (but only when its the other side being banned) or the more times we have to file a court case re the 1st Amendment, the less we are actually living by that value, I think.
A number of comments here recently have said that the year long battle we have been seeing will die down because of the covid vaccine (as if covid was the cause) and a certain divisive political figure will be gone. Those were just trigger points, I think, exposing what was already happening. The definition of truth has been under assault for a while, and we're seeing a tipping point, I think, in whether that battle can remain in only in print.
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All-In [38514]
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If you're at George Washington's house then
Jan 15, 2021, 1:14 PM
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it's trespassing, making threats, and a variety of other possible charges. Free speech doesn't protect you from breaking other laws or even repercussions of that speech.
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All-In [46795]
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That's the key that people are missing
Jan 15, 2021, 1:16 PM
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Free speech doesn't protect you from the private enterprise repercussions of what you said.
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110%er [8885]
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Re: 1st Amendment right or Treason?
Jan 15, 2021, 1:16 PM
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why would this need to be interpreted?
looks straightforward to me
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
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CU Medallion [56005]
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Except, of course, there are laws that abridge the freedom
Jan 15, 2021, 1:21 PM
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of speech, the press, and the right of people to peaceably assemble because the Bill of Rights isn't absolute.
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All-In [27287]
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Re: 1st Amendment right or Treason?
Jan 15, 2021, 1:24 PM
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The issue in my mind is that if you are a citizen of the United States then your allegiance lies with the country. At what point should one be allowed to have the rights to call for the government system to be burned down. I’m very disappointed in how many elected officials have pushed this movement and had zero consequences.
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All-In [42019]
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Re: 1st Amendment right or Treason?
Jan 15, 2021, 1:39 PM
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Treason is defined in our country as aiding a foreign enemy against the United States. Burning the flag is considered expression and protest of our government, which the First Amendment especially protects.
See Texas v. Johnson.
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