free speech | I'm Just Sharing

Brendan, Brendan, Brendan… gone so soon after rising so high… I guess stupidity can follow someone long into their future can’t it?

For those of you who aren’t up to speed, a couple of weeks ago Mozilla, the company that puts out Firefox (my favorite browser by the way), promoted Brendan Eich to the CEO position. In 11 days he was gone, the victim of what I’m going to say is public stupidity in giving money to support the California proposition against gay marriage back in 2008. The uproar was immediate I guess because, being out of the news loop as I sometimes am, I didn’t know it had occurred until the day he’d resigned.

Loozrboy via Compfight

Of all things, I came to the news because of a press release someone put on on a dating site called OKCupid that I saw on Twitter (yes, one of my favorite news sources) trying not to take credit for promoting the initial protest against the hire (but the gloating was obvious) and then reading that not only were a lot of people up in arms about the hire but many people within the company were as well. And the statement made by the head of the board certainly didn’t sound like the normal company speak lines of “We’re sorry to see _____ go…”, instead coming out like “We were wrong, and thanks for helping us see the light.”

What was interesting is that the people who normally could have cared less about anything that happened in tech that believed as Eich did came out saying that this was a clear violation of free speech and that it was setting a dangerous precedent. That once again I felt it was time to straighten everyone out about our free speech laws in this country shows that folks aren’t paying attention to either myself or what’s really going on. I touched upon the topic of being controversial in 2011 and early in 2012 when I talked about the courage it takes to be in social media, and Holly & I touched on the topic when I interviewed her later in 2012, which means I haven’t talked about it in more tha 18 months; my bad. So, let’s get this clear once more, since it really can’t be stated enough times.

In the United States, everyone has the right to express their opinion. What everyone doesn’t have a right to do is state their opinion and not have someone else disagree with it if they choose to. It’s the reason why so many people can love the movie Frozen (count me in) and a few can say they think it’s overrated. It’s the reason why so many young girls love Justin Bieber to the end of the world and others hate his guts (I don’t have an opinion either way).

What everyone has to realize is that, as I stated in the “controversy” article, if you’re strong enough to stand behind your convictions, say whatever you want to say and deal with whatever the consequences might be later on. If your opinions keep you from getting a job later on because they’re counter to what that particular employer wants to deal with, so be it.

Sorry kids, but that’s not the same thing as discrimination, where you don’t hire someone for what they are. No one asked to be black or female or gay or disabled or bald or heavy or… name something.

When we decide to say whatever we want to say, if it’s going to irk someone it could impact your life; that’s just how it goes. I take stands on things all the time, but I try to word my missives in a way that they’re not specifically insulting to anyone. If they take offense I’m ready to deal with it. But I don’t have masses of people hating on me because I’m not stupid.

King Mango Strut 2013, Coconut Grove, Miami, FL (27 of 75)

photo-gator via Compfight

What’s stupid? When you can donate money to a cause you know might hurt you later on and don’t do it anonymously, doing it so you can write it off in your taxes which, if you’re a public official or a public CEO, are allowed to be seen by anyone. Brandon, really?

Here’s a bit of family history. My grandfather was a registered Republican for a major part of his life. He never voted for a single Republican in his entire life. He owned an auto repair shop in a Republican city and knew he’d never get any business if he’d registered as a Democrat. So he did what he had to do to survive, kept his mouth shut even amongst his friends, and voted his conscience. He wasn’t ready to be controversial until he shut down his business, and no one was the wiser until he had nothing to worry about. Freedom of speech? In his day, even with the Constitution? Please!

Freedom of speech is a legal reality; freedom of consequences is a true reality. If you’re big enough or important enough or passionate enough of stupid enough (Facebook drunk pictures; really folks?), those things can come back to hurt you. I know someone who literally changed her name and waited a year for it to sink in so she could start applying for jobs under that name, in hopes that her political views under her other name would become obscure, as she is a liberal fireball but lives in a conservative area. How many of you would want to go through something like that?

Let’s not be too timid to have an opinion but let’s also not be naive. We all know when we’re about to say something on purpose that someone else might not like. If you don’t want to deal with the potential heat then don’t say it. If you can deal with it, and you’ve thought about your future, then go ahead.

Still, as the video below will prove, I believe there are times when you must speak your piece; it’s just how I roll:

http://youtu.be/x7MGr36qXYI

As I’m mentally getting ready for the Syracuse – Gonzaga basketball game in a little while, I’m reminded of the reality of today’s world. That reality is that there are a number of people who believe that, because we (the United States) has a Constitution whose first amendment gives the right of free speech, that they can and should be able to say whatever they want to say, no matter who it hurts, and get away with it.

Something that I absolutely loathe is news sources allowing people to comment on news stories. I can’t believe the hate, racism, and bad taste that I keep seeing over and over, and I keep asking myself just who thought this was a good idea in the first place. Locally I’ve had conversation with someone who works at the newspaper, most specifically the online newspaper, and I’ve read commentary about it through someone else I know whose group tried to get some information from banks that’s supposed to be given immediately by them, had the story hit the newspapers, and the majority of comments against them weren’t positive, and pretty much had nothing to do with why they protested in the first place.

Then there’s this issue of health care, and how people on both sides are arguing with each other. This group of people who are calling themselves “tea partiers” (I call them “tea baggers”), are of course protesting against the bill, but they’ve gotten so vile as to call black representatives the N-word, throw money in the face of a man with serious Parkinson’s disease issues saying he didn’t deserve to live off the money of other people (as it turned out, he’s a college professor with a Ph.D.), spit on some other people and basically show themselves for what they mainly are; a bunch of no-nothing home grown terrorists who don’t want to discuss anything if they can’t get absolutely everything they want. Yeah, that was a rant!

You think that’s bad enough? I don’t. Rush Limbaugh this past week went after an 11-year old whose mother died because she couldn’t get the health care she needed, and Glenn Beck went after religious groups who believe that a part of their mission is to try to help others. I may not be religious, but wasn’t that supposedly what Jesus was doing (yeah, I know that answer; that’s sarcasm)?

People have this thing about free speech incorrect. That’s not what the first amendment says, just like the second amendment doesn’t say that everyone has the right to bear arms. I find it incredible that the same people who believe that they need to follow the tenets of the Constitution to the letter can’t even seem to understand what the words actually mean because none of them seem to know anything about history.

The first amendment was supposed to only be geared towards Congress; it even specifically mentions Congress. Its purpose was to make sure there was no national religion set up, since many people fled Europe to come here for religious freedom. Its purpose was to make sure Congress couldn’t stop the press from commenting either positively or negatively against government policies, like what’s going on in Venezuela right now, another reason many of them left Europe, which was the bastion of kings and emperors in the day. Overall, the amendment was there to protect the people from Congress; it wasn’t meant to create a free-for-all of bad behavior from anyone who decided they wanted to be a moron towards someone else.

Still, the Supreme Court has interpreted this one many times, and these days pretty much anything goes. Yet, during President Obama’s last State of the Union speech, we all saw one of the justices not enjoying the President’s idea of free speech, when he castigated them for declaring a certain law that most of us thought was a good one as being unconstitutional by a 5-4 party line vote. Seems even Supreme Court judges don’t necessarily want to have to live with this free speech issue that they’ve created. Tough; that’s what consequences are all about.

Anyway, that’s my Sunday rant; got a take on it? Just be nice and pick your words carefully because, unlike everywhere else, we pay for our blogs, and we all have the right to either delete or edit anything we don’t like; our money, right? I always say no one has to agree with me, they just have to respect me. After all, I would bet if I were standing in your face that the majority of people wouldn’t want to risk wondering what kind of physical reaction, if any, might come from me. It pays being a big guy sometimes, right Dennis? 🙂

Go Orange!

I'm Just Sharing

Tag: free speech

Sunday Question: When Is There Too Much Free Speech?