god bless america

[dukealien]

what is deemed offensive, can i tell peoples of all races fuck off? if not i'm against it. what if it's offensive to everyone?

polls like this are too easy to manipulate.  they can spin it any way they wish. hate speech; it seems little has been done about it so far.
i think some things shouldn't be allowed and some should, depending on the context(bold added by ray).

Yeah, well, that's why I'm for universal freedom of speech. Who gets to decide the context?
Whoever's in power gets to decide. Today that might be a government you agree with,
tomorrow it might not. If the Neo-Nazis want to say they hate Jews, that should be their right.
Statements like this cannot be countered by suppression; that's the resort of repressive governments,
not democracies.  Speech like this needs to be countered by the same power that allowed those
statements to be aired in the first place: Free Speech.

Resolutely stating the obvious, what Americans perhaps worry about more, and Europeans less (or pretend to?) is that there are no windows into souls.  That is, everyone can lie about how he feels, and - if he's sane - often does.

There may be a legitimate (and justicable?) bright line at shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater, but the supposedly bright line at "fighting words" is bunk.  If someone wants to fight someone else (including for being a member of a group he hates), he can pretend anything said (or any action at all, if "symbolic speech" is allowed) constitutes "fighting words."  I say "Potato," you say "You're racist against the Irish!" and take a swing at me.  Don't believe it?  Check out the news from American universities - the neologism is "cry-bullies."

The crowded theater is the only bright line, and it's a very limited and artificial (though plausible) case.  Aside from that, everyone's required to let anyone else shout the vilest personal or group insults in his face.  When he takes a swing or picks up a rock, though... well, Americans have an Amendment for that.  Might explain part of the difference in responses.