Racism and "free speech"

[KickTruly]

<Split from the "Joffa Condemned by Club" thread in General Discussion - Pies4shaw for BBMods>

My takeaway from what Joffa said is that - we all have a right to free speech. If you don't like what I said, get over it. Joffa appears to be sick of it and spat the dummy in one foul swoop.

My opinion is that racism needs to be handled appropriately but there is a grey area between political correctness and saying what is on your mind. We have a god-given right to speak out and not be an automaton, don't let authority take away free speech (just look at gov tyranny of the lock-downs).

[Raw Hammer]

[thesoretoothsayer]

I think all this talk about "freedom of speech" shows how immersed we are in American culture. We do not have freedom of speech.
The High Court has established that we have an implied freedom of political expression only.
Otherwise, we are subject to various laws that restrict speech.
If a complaint is made against Joffa to the Human Rights Commission it's most likely that he'll be required to make an apology.

[David]

I have no problem with talking about free speech – and where its limits should be – but it's just a red herring here. Asking someone to apologise for something they said has nothing to do with free speech at all; what I think Joffa is really saying here is that he should be able to say whatever he wants and that nobody should respond critically. But obviously if you believe in free speech, the people bagging him have the right to say what they want as well, at the very minimum.

[stui magpie]

The interesting thing about all this is the pile on calling Joffa a racist. Anyone who's met him knows clearly that he's not.

I'm not going to defend what he said, smearing an entire nationality is just asking for a clip, but there is a lot of people working in Aged Care who you wouldn't trust to mind your pet.

[think positive]

And a lot of them are white