Freedom of Speech (did I miss something?)

[Taem]

Is "hate" speech any different than anti-government speech, another form of hate

Anti-government speech is not the same thing as hate speech. They aren't even in the same ballpark. The differences should be blatantly obvious to any person who has even a sliver of functional grey matter upstairs.

Of course it isn't, however that was not the actual question. The TV and internet are on absolute fire over this to a degree I haven't seen since 9/11 occurred. There was swift action then which gave birth to what is now Homeland Security. What kind of language do you think would be in an anti-hate speech bill exactly? You want to say it's [hate speech] about putting down a specific sect of individuals based on their skin color, age, race, sexual orientation, etc., fine, however there are so many gray areas and matters of perspective between those lines, it's pretty much guaranteed to be an abused one way or the other, not to mention completely violates our freedom of speech. I can't wait to see Carrot Top or Kathy Griffin arrested mid-skit for saying inflammatory remarks <sarcasm>.

But to flip the coin on it's head here, as I said to Archon_Wing, the police are also culpable suspects in this meltdown whom reacted entirely too late for reasons only they will ever know. However, I'd like to point out here that they are in fact an entity of their own. If a law passed to protect against hate speech, do you honestly think the police wouldn't be included? You constantly hear people verbally bashing the police with such eloquent expressions as, "fuck you piggy," and other much more colorful phrases. Think long and hard about who new censorship laws would actually protect, and what would be lost in the process. Do you really think new rules would be restricted to lawful assembly of people? Groups [someone personally] deems as offending one of the protected classes? Or would it just be a blanket law?

I'm curious to see how this all plays out.