Too soon/far?

[Zjuggernaut]

I have no problem with some offensive humour as long as it has some wit about it.. From what I've read on here, nothing is witty or remotely funny about it. Just a sad realisation that people are stupid and America has sh*t gun laws.

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

Of course it shouldn't be limited.

But there is such a thing as "good taste".

It shouldn't be limited but it'd be nice if the people who made these stupid pictures were exposed so everyone would know how disrespectful they were, then they could use their freedom of speech to tell them how pathetic they are.

Good taste is a subjective and relative thing. You can go on about how an extreme such as this is self-evidently in bad taste, but you'll never build a convincing argument for your cause. The only reason you aren't being proven wrong in this case is that you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who disagrees with you in this instance.

You have every right to think what you'd like of them and to tell them so. It wouldn't be free speech if you didn't.

 

[Gikoku]

It shouldn't be limited but it'd be nice if the people who made these stupid pictures were exposed so everyone would know how disrespectful they were, then they could use their freedom of speech to tell them how pathetic they are.

That really wouldn't make a bit of difference with them, because they wouldn't care. In fact they'd find even more amusement in it knowing that people are up in a fit over what they did. The best solution would be to try to ignore them because that's what they're shooting for, a reaction.

Good taste is a subjective and relative thing. You can go on about how an extreme such as this is self-evidently in bad taste, but you'll never build a convincing argument for your cause. The only reason you aren't being proven wrong in this case is that you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who disagrees with you in this instance.

You have every right to think what you'd like of them and to tell them so. It wouldn't be free speech if you didn't.

You're right, it is subjective. Just about anything can be treated like a fact in society if you have enough people to gain the majority vote on what's wrong or right.

I'm often reminded of George Carlin's views on the matter of free rights and freedom of speech, how even though we believe and are told we have freedom of speech and free rights, that there's quite a bit of stuff we can't say or do. For example the N word is banned in New York City, granted it's a ****ty word with a horrible history.. but it's still just a word that doesn't bring any physical bodily harm to a person and if you're going to ban it you might as well do the same for f*ggot and many others, bringing a nationwide censorship sweep. What's the point in calling it freedom of speech when you don't truly have freedom of speech, it's limited speech.

People have every right to make fun of and say anything they want, especially on the internet. Others should just learn and try not to let it affect them so much.. but it's hard. Seriously. Your child that's not even close to being a pre-teen is killed and someone thinks it's hilarious and chooses to be vocal about it, regardless of your feelings. It's hard to deal with something like that, people are only human. And like Queen I too find bad taste in it when the thought crosses my mind of "what if that was my niece and nephew in there?". Being a broken record here, one has to swallow the harsh reality of that freedom and move on because some of these people are not going to lighten up or be considerate for your feelings just because you want them to.

 

[Angel]

*shrugs*

This is why I don't watch the news. Before I was a parent, I wouldn't have cared at all about this sort of thing - perspectives change and now I don't want to read/watch/hear about kids getting murdered. Not that I wanted to before, but you know what I mean.

I just feel that true freedom, be it speech or otherwise, comes with a certain degree of responsibility. Yes, you can say and do what you please in a free world. But you have a responsibility for what you say and do and if somehow it bites you in the backside afterwards then you have to step up and take that.

And now I sound like Uncle Ben.

Oh dear...