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Ann Coulter finds likely BFF/life partner in free-speech spat w/ Berkeley: Bill Maher

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Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
It will never cease to amaze me how ardent Americans argue for the Freedom of Speech all the while having no idea what that actually entails.

Unless I'm mistaken and somehow the University of Berkeley is a branch of the government and haven't cancelled Ann Coulter's invitation but have instead issued a warrant for her arrest.

This idea that people are entitled to a platform is so bizarrely dumbfounding. Like... do adherents actually think that's how the world works? Like if I want to walk into a Catholic church and give an hour long diatribe about the virtues of Satanism during Sunday mass that the attendants are just beholden to letting me talk? The schools would be obliged to having some stranger wander into the classroom and give a lecture on the Flat Earth conspiracy and they have to simply let the madman ramble because anyone is free to just talk about whatever they want, wherever they want?

I mean... you're arguing this on Neogaf. You are basically tripping over grey names on this message board. Clearly people's indignation over free speech won't stop them from even using this very board! Those poor posters that broke the terms of service with whatever got them banned! Neogaf doesn't care about free speech!

Quick, someone call Bill Maher!

I get your point and don't disagree that common sense and decency are to be considered in how one voices ideas. But in this case, members of the student body -are- the ones inviting and offering a platform for these people to speak. Its a different case from your examples.
 
Is this what it takes to be a 'liberal' in America now? Not just support progressive ideals, but actively punish/silence those on the 'other side'?

Jesus. When did America get this fucked up? Or is GAF just full of hyperbolic partisanship?

Also how is bill maher "liberal"

How is he NOT?
 
Its not really wrong to think that the Berkeley protests are at best counterproductive. They tend to do little more than to be a notch in a conservatives demagogues belt. They know exactly what they will get when they go there are the students never didappoint in helping give them free promotional material by blocking them from tgeir campus. Ironically it would be more damaging if they did not protest at all.
 
Is this what it takes to be a 'liberal' in America now? Not just support progressive ideals, but actively punish/silence those on the 'other side'?

Jesus. When did America get this fucked up? Or is GAF just full of hyperbolic partisanship?



How is he NOT?
Hey remember how hate crimes rose after the election and black people are being killed weekly by the police.

Oh wait, big mean old leftists don't want to meet violence with hand holding and listening skills anymore.

Guess were evil.
 
Maher, like many who flock to these threads, are so frustratingly tone deaf to what is going on in our culture right now. We have to engage these fucks lol. When will some of you people wake the fuck up and realize these people don't want engagement? Do you think they've never been debated before? Of course they have, they just don't care. Their whole point of existence at this moment in history is to spread hate, but we're all supposed to sit around like good little liberals and wait our turns so we can raise our hands and mystify these hate-mongering pieces of shit with our logic, because oh boy, this time will be different. This will definitely be their Archie Bunker meets the KKK moment, and they're going to fall to the floor in all their bigotry and be awashed anew.

It's especially frustrating from Maher, who demonstrates such a keen mind for the political situation at the time, he even stood up on his own show and told Democrats and liberals to 'wake up,' and that we were at war, not because we wanted to be, because the right had declared war on us a long time ago and was going to do anything and everything to win and crush. But then turns around and says we should just like Neo-Nazis and hate-mongering pieces of shit just do and say whatever they want. Incredible.
 
Let us not forget Bill Maher basically fellatio'ed Milo on TV so...

Is this what it takes to be a 'liberal' in America now? Not just support progressive ideals, but actively punish/silence those on the 'other side'?

Jesus. When did America get this fucked up? Or is GAF just full of hyperbolic partisanship?



How is he NOT?

That answer depends on your race and political leaning.
 

Chumley

Banned
And you're acting like every single person that consumes Breitbart or Coulter or voted Trump is a card carrying KKK member, rather than being say, an average dipshit Fox News viewers.

Which yeah, gonna have to challenge and convert a few of those people if we're ever going to beat the right again, and punching every hateful shithead isn't going to accomplish it.

Exactly.

Some of the shit I'm reading in this thread is unreal.
 

MUnited83

For you.
Yes, they are lol. If a group invites them, the school cannot say no.

Sounds like the most mindnumbingly stupid thing in existence to ever have as a "rule".
You know who gets to talk on the universities on my country? People who fucking know their shit and have something relevant to the university to teach. What's with this motherfucking obsession with letting crazy ass pieces of shit with factually 100% incorrect claims that might as well be crazy people picked out from the middle of the street that have exactly ZERO of value to teach anyone anything ever and give them a place to speak just because two students thought it would be funny to invite them? What kind of crazy ass dimension is this where your fucking tuition is going to be wasted on money, time and resources that could be much better used elsewhere, on crazy ass pieces of shit with no educational value of any kind?
 

bionic77

Member
Is this what it takes to be a 'liberal' in America now? Not just support progressive ideals, but actively punish/silence those on the 'other side'?

Jesus. When did America get this fucked up? Or is GAF just full of hyperbolic partisanship?



How is he NOT?
When the other side is literally just spreading lies and hate why do we have to give them a platform?
 
Sounds like the most mindnumbingly stupid thing in existence to ever have as a "rule".
You know who gets to talk on the universities on my country? People who fucking know their shit and have something relevant to the university to teach. What's with this motherfucking obsession with letting crazy ass pieces of shit with factually 100% incorrect claims that might as well be crazy people picked out from the middle of the street that have exactly ZERO of value to teach anyone anything ever and give them a place to speak just because two students thought it would be funny to invite them? What kind of crazy ass dimension is this where your fucking tuition is going to be wasted on money, time and resources that could be much better used elsewhere, on crazy ass pieces of shit with no educational value of any kind?

The bold is exactly why it's students who have to invite people to speak, and some schools require professors to sign off on it.
 
Maher, like many who flock to these threads, are so frustratingly tone deaf to what is going on in our culture right now. We have to engage these fucks lol. When will some of you people wake the fuck up and realize these people don't want engagement? Do you think they've never been debated before? Of course they have, they just don't care. Their whole point of existence at this moment in history is to spread hate, but we're all supposed to sit around like good little liberals and wait our turns so we can raise our hands and mystify these hate-mongering pieces of shit with our logic, because oh boy, this time will be different. This will definitely be their Archie Bunker meets the KKK moment, and they're going to fall to the floor in all their bigotry and be awashed anew.

It's especially frustrating from Maher, who demonstrates such a keen mind for the political situation at the time, he even stood up on his own show and told Democrats and liberals to 'wake up,' and that we were at war, not because we wanted to be, because the right had declared war on us a long time ago and was going to do anything and everything to win and crush. But then turns around and says we should just like Neo-Nazis and hate-mongering pieces of shit just do and say whatever they want. Incredible.

Do you think people are advocating here that Ann Coulter can be converted, or rather the people that her speech might reach?
 
The amount of "well no point in getting angry at the world burning around us" is legitimately pissing me off. You can have fun with your pointless fucking debating where neither side changes their viewpoint because they think the other is dumb.
 
Then...what's the issue?

(asking generally)

Some people think that Ann Coulter was disinvited due to the content of her speech, which would be a violation of the First Amendment. Others feel that hate speech shouldn't be given a platform because the legitimizes it and helps it spread further.
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
No, no they do not. A public university cannot say "you aren't allowed to speak here" unless, like in this case, they have a reasonable expectation that violence will occur.

Otherwise yes, she is protected the right to freedom of speech to appear on campus and speak.

She has free speech rights that are protected on campus property since it's public. That is different from right to a podium and event.

She can go to the courtyard anytime. Plenty of crazy people do that at Berkeley all the time.

Some people think that Ann Coulter was disinvited due to the content of her speech, which would be a violation of the First Amendment. Others feel that hate speech shouldn't be given a platform because the legitimizes it and helps it spread further.

I don't see how first amendment guarantees a podium and event.
 
Is this what it takes to be a 'liberal' in America now? Not just support progressive ideals, but actively punish/silence those on the 'other side'?

Jesus. When did America get this fucked up? Or is GAF just full of hyperbolic partisanship?



How is he NOT?

Who's being punished and/or silenced? She may be trash, and the students that invited a known provocateur on an all expense paid trip in order to provoke their fellow students are a shady bunch of twats, but she's not been silenced.
 

TaterTots

Banned
Is this what it takes to be a 'liberal' in America now? Not just support progressive ideals, but actively punish/silence those on the 'other side'?

Jesus. When did America get this fucked up? Or is GAF just full of hyperbolic partisanship?



How is he NOT?

It's a GAF thing. Personally, I'm all for people saying whatever they want to. You want to spew shitty racist comments? That's fine, but people also have the right to shut your shit down and counter the hatred. Shouting people down and making them hesitant/afraid to say shit is the only way to win. You aren't going to change their beliefs.
 

Codeblue

Member
You're talking about a goofy right wing provocateur. Her biggest "crime" is saying insultingly stupid things on television.

Stunning to see this genuinely murderous rhetoric being openly espoused on GAF.

If you think xenophobia is goofy, you need to take a look at the people it's killed.

Sure was goofy when that guy murdered an Indian man watching sports in a bar while telling him to get out of his country. Or when some dude brought a gun to a pizza parlor because someone made up a rumor about it.

Words matter. How have people still not learned this lesson. It gets people killed.
 
Let us not forget Bill Maher basically fellatio'ed Milo on TV so...



That answer depends on your race and political leaning.
Member all the race riots and ass whippings people took for equality could have been solved with talking

Q subset of the left no longer wants to be beaten down and talked down too like we are subhuman and acts on it and we are the evil ones.
 
Yeah I'm not disagreeing with that. Protest the shit out of her like she should be.

Maher, and many others, are against that, too. They showed clips a few weeks ago of a campus where a speaker was who writes books and papers that are just thinly veiled eugenics being protested, non-violently, by students, and Maher said it was awful and he had two "liberal" panelists who agreed, one going as far as saying those students should be reprimanded by suspension if not outright expulsion
 
Sounds like the most mindnumbingly stupid thing in existence to ever have as a "rule".
You know who gets to talk on the universities on my country? People who fucking know their shit and have something relevant to the university to teach. What's with this motherfucking obsession with letting crazy ass pieces of shit with factually 100% incorrect claims that might as well be crazy people picked out from the middle of the street that have exactly ZERO of value to teach anyone anything ever and give them a place to speak just because two students thought it would be funny to invite them? What kind of crazy ass dimension is this where your fucking tuition is going to be wasted on money, time and resources that could be much better used elsewhere, on crazy ass pieces of shit with no educational value of any kind?

I mean I don't disagree, but I feel like in America legally banning the Ann Coulters from speaking in public places creates a bad precedent that some right wing shithead would pounce on to label Black Lives Matter a "hate speech" group against white people and ban them from places too, or something like that.
 

Jetman

Member
Is free speech partisan now?

I wouldn't shed a tear if she got hit by a truck tomorrow, but she should be able to say whatever dumb bullshit she has to say.

So the people angry at Bill think Coulter shouldn't be able to speak when invited?

Bill is for EVERYONE having free speech.

Yeah, this. Let people say whatever dumb shit they want. That way we can call them out on it. Let's get them out in the open so we can deal with their idiotic views.

Magee calls out Coulter all the time for her ridiculous views.
 

pestul

Member
Ignoring hate speech, shouldn't being a climate change and evolutionary theory denier automatically disqualify someone from speaking at any science-focused educational institution?
 

Future

Member
I feel people wish bill maher was like a conservative pundit and just shelled out pure hate to the other side all of the time no matter the circumstance
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
I mean I don't disagree, but I feel like in America legally banning the Ann Coulters from speaking in public places creates a bad precedent that some right wing shithead would pounce on to label Black Lives Matter a "hate speech" group against white people and ban them from places too, or something like that.

Who is banning anyone from speaking in public? She can go to the Berkeley courtyard anytime. First amendment doesn't guarantee a podium, room reservation, av equipment, etc.
 

Chumley

Banned
Yeah, this. Let people say whatever dumb shit they want. That way we can call them out on it. Let's get them out in the open so we can deal with their idiotic views.

Exactly. Address it.

Silencing them, throwing stones at them and punching them is a one way track to civil war.
 
The turn-on might have started happening when Maher endorsed Bernie even though he endorsed Hillary after Bernie lost and dropped out.

Nah. He's been hated way before that. He's one of those atheists who never grows out the teenage hate all religious people phase. As somebody who has been atheist since birth I can't stand his brand.
 
Yeah, this. Let people say whatever dumb shit they want. That way we can call them out on it. Let's get them out in the open so we can deal with their idiotic views.
It's like you guys just don't fucking get it.

I've been hearing this literally my ENTIRE life about how this is what will make things better and now we have outward racists and nationalists running the country, just like it's always been.

We exposed the filth of their side for all the world to see and this nation responded by making those people in charge.

This shit is not working and has not worked. It's time to find a new tactic.
 
Distinction without difference.



It sounds like your mom is a racist.

You couldn't be more wrong. America is bursting at the seams with subtle acts of white supremacy pretty much everywhere. Doesn't mean every rural hick is advocating for cleansing the gene pool, and speaking as a Jewish person, yeah that distinction matters to me.
 
When the other side is literally just spreading lies and hate why do we have to give them a platform?

Apparently because Americans are like super smart and aware and they will see this person spewing bullshit and that person will have embarrassed themselves and no American will take them seriously because they'll get beat down with real information, and well made articulate responses (this imaginary scenario isn't demonstrated in American history).

In reality, most people are stupid as all the fucks, giving a flat out lying hateful person a platform does nothing but bolster their ranks (as proven by American history...repeatedly)

Yeah, this. Let people say whatever dumb shit they want. That way we can call them out on it. Let's get them out in the open so we can deal with their idiotic views.

Magee calls out Coulter all the time for her ridiculous views.

Yea because historically that works so well.
 
Yeah, this. Let people say whatever dumb shit they want. That way we can call them out on it. Let's get them out in the open so we can deal with their idiotic views.

Magee calls out Coulter all the time for her ridiculous views.

Coulter is already out in the open. You want the easiest of glimpses? Go to her Twitter. Or do a Google search. Or the myriad of other ways where her viewpoints have already been seen, discussed and challenged.

She's being protested BECAUSE people know exactly who she is.
 
Exactly. Address it.

Silencing them, throwing stones at them and punching them is a one way track to civil war.
Address it. What the ever loving hell do you think has been happening? You think we've spent the last good knows how many years sitting in a dark room going "gee whiz how do we do this"?
 
Exactly. Address it.

Silencing them, throwing stones at them and punching them is a one way track to civil war.

Wake up call: we are already heading for a civil war, some would even say we're in the midst of a massive cultural civil war. The right declared war on the left a long time ago, and I promise you, they aren't having discussions about how to engage you peacefully.
 
It's like you guys just don't fucking get it.

I've been hearing this literally my ENTIRE life about how this is what will make things better and now we have outward racists and nationalists running the country, just like it's always been.

We exposed the filth of their side for all the world to see and this nation responded by making those people in charge.

This shit is not working and has not worked. It's time to find a new tactic.

I would argue we've always had this, they just were quiet about it after it became no longer popular to explicitly say it.
 
Giving charismatic hate mongers with questionable views a large podium with which to broadcast their views has never, ever, ever worked out for the side that is against said awful views.
 

pestul

Member
Yeah, this. Let people say whatever dumb shit they want. That way we can call them out on it. Let's get them out in the open so we can deal with their idiotic views.

Magee calls out Coulter all the time for her ridiculous views.
That's nice. Except when even just one person is persuaded into believing her crazy beliefs because of engagements like this. I suppose you could make the argument that maybe it may turn off more of her followers than she would pick up as a result.
 
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