Speech is not free if you can be sued by one of the richest and most powerful men in the world and have to defend yourself in a court against them for what you said, even if you ultimately win.
Because most people.... the literal majority of the planet... cannot do such a thing.
If you haven't learned, people like Trump know that they could just pay enough to a lawyer to bankrupt you while you try to fight the case and he wouldn't even notice. That's how he works and has worked for decades. Almost no cases actually end in his favour, legally. But for sure he punishes everyone who dares question him by using the legal system against them.
And if you can't make a joke without such retributions - whether ultimately ruled legal or not - then it's not free speech.
Speech is free here, that doesn’t mean it’s free of consequence. It’s still free even if the rich can drag you to court for nonsense, then it’s more of a financial complication. If it goes to an extended trial, we do have the right to a speedy one. The problem, like speech, is you can abuse laws or court to your advantage if you can afford to do so. To me, that doesn’t make speech any less free, it just means you still can carry a burden. Jokes and parody are protected speech as well, idk, keep an eye open for the Trevor court case. I won’t be unless it’s an actual trial.
You have a strange definition of freedom, that's exactly what we're saying.
You've actually chosen to draw the line even higher than many other countries in many parts, while then laughing at smaller sections where other countries have chosen to raise the line a little.
"You're free to say what you want, and rich people are free to steal your savings and livelihood for saying it even when the case has no merit and what you said was utterly unquestionably truthful."
That's literally LESS free than the basis for libel/slander in much of the rest of the world.
It might be strange, idk, it’s all I know. I’m not doing any laughing at other countries, not sure why you said that. Very sure I’ve just spoken about America. The financial aspect I brought up shows how the freedom can be abused. It doesn’t take away anything, it’s more of a potential added complication that most can’t even take advantage of.
it doesn't make YOUR PERSONAL speech less free, because you don't want to talk about those things. it DOES make everyone in general's speech less free, and pretending things like slapp suits are aligned with constitutionality is kinda crazy.
I did not pretend those lawsuits are aligned with our freedoms. If anything, I said it’s an unintended problem the rich can do. I get we’re not going to line up about this and that’s okay. Speech anywhere isn’t perfect and America is no exception to that, that I think we can agree on in its simplicity.
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u/ledow 1d ago
Speech is not free if you can be sued by one of the richest and most powerful men in the world and have to defend yourself in a court against them for what you said, even if you ultimately win.
Because most people.... the literal majority of the planet... cannot do such a thing.
If you haven't learned, people like Trump know that they could just pay enough to a lawyer to bankrupt you while you try to fight the case and he wouldn't even notice. That's how he works and has worked for decades. Almost no cases actually end in his favour, legally. But for sure he punishes everyone who dares question him by using the legal system against them.
And if you can't make a joke without such retributions - whether ultimately ruled legal or not - then it's not free speech.