You are wrong when you say that I am not
American, it is just that I have had the fortune of living
in a much more tolerant and beautiful country:
Canada. I can't say that things are perfect up here, but
we all have enough exposure to American media and
culture to know that we have it good up here. This is not
to say that I have a problem with Americans as
individuals; it is just that on the whole, Americans don't
represent themselves well, and much of it has to do with
this mis-guided notion of "free speech." I have heard
that argument before, that we need to allow "those
idiots" to express there opinions for the sake of proving
that a true notion of free speech exists; but you have
to remember, the average person sometimes has
difficulty with differentiating between what is idiotic and
what is a legitimate opinion. This is particularly the
case when the majority of people are bad-off and
looking for scapegoats, just as the Germans did in th
1930s. I think to allow someone to express an opinion
that is fundamentally wrong and offensive, as opposed
to simply being provocative, is just not a good
idea.