Pat Condell: Bad Faith at Ground Zero
via youtube.
Mr. Condell says (0:22 – 0:53): “People keep framing this as a religious freedom issue. But there’s a difference between practicing your religion, which everyone has a right to do, and rubbing your religion in people’s faces as a triumphalist political statement, which is what’s happening here. I’d be interested to know just how bad an insult has to be before it’s no longer protected by the First Amendment. After all, the Second Amendment gives Americans the right to bear arms. But in practice you need a permit to walk around packing hardware, and not everyone can get one despite the Second Amendment.”
I enjoy Mr. Condell‘s videos very much and have posted quite a few at ovo127.com. I have not always agreed with everything he says or how he says it, but the agreement was general enough to post the videos without comment. This video is an exception. Here Mr. Condell confuses what is right (moral, respectful, virtuous) with rights (legal status). And Mr. Condell appears to be suggesting that insults, if they are bad enough, do not deserve First Amendment protection. I disagree on both counts. What is legal and what is illegal are not necessarily what is right or what is wrong. And the most vile of insults are deserving of First Amendment protection. Otherwise, enjoy the show.
