ANSWERS: 4
  • The limits to freedom of speech are ideas provoking physical violence and threatening the freedom of speech itself. Violence is where debate ends and barbarism begins. Therefore, Nazism or any other kind of Racism, should not enjoy the freedom of speech because they advocate violence. They are beyond reason. If you were to encounter a man screaming and running towards you with a bloody axe in his hand, would you stop and try to reason with him? Any government that tolerates ideas openly advocating violence will be responsible for the consequences. Remember, Hitler was ELECTED Chancellor.
  • It begins with the pen or mouth! Simple eh? :)
  • Slander and libel (or actions in defamation generally) require that your statement is both harmful and false (or, rather, not honestly and reasonably believed by the speaker to be true). So freedom of speech ends where your statements are lies specifically calculated to cause damage to others, which seems reasonable enough.   That said, defamation is generally a civil matter, so it's not so much the 'end' of freedom of speech as a 'revaluation' - you can in theory spew harmful lies to your heart's content if you are willing to pay for the damage they cause.
  • Defamation, which is the catch-all for slander and libel, is the saying (or writing) of something that has a harmful affect on one's business, trade or profession. Saying an attorney is a crook, a baker is a poisoner, a doctor is a butcher...and so forth. Those are defamatory statements if directed at a specific idividual. Then we start getting vague. Saying a person is a lousy parent is not slander. Commenting on a public figure, even attacking the public figure in their profession, is "protected". I can say Bush is a terrible president, incapable of making a rational decision and has led this country into one disaster after another. I am protected by the privilege to comment on public figures. I can say Harrison Ford is a terrible actor...again commenting negatively on his profession. Protected. The guidelines seem reasonable.

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