racist opinion a crime ?

[Justin Schwartz]

I was of course making a legal point about the law in the US. But this is a 
law I support. So yes, contrary to Charles, but with, I think, Marx, I think 
that in this respect France is less free than the U.S. In a perfectly 
obvious sense, that is true: people are free to express opinions here that 
would subject them to criminal prosecution and maybe civil liability in 
France. Now, you might argue, as Charles does, that less freedom is a good 
thing, if the freedom is used for ill, But it is best to be clear about what 
one is defending--in your case, and in Charles's, less freedom.

Less freedom does not mean no freedom, it should not be necessary to say: no 
one would confuse contemporary France with Stalinist Russia. And it does not 
follow from France being less free in this respect that it is less free 
overall. But it is less free in this respect, and defendfers of laws that 
outlaw speech they find obnoxious are deceiving themselves if they think 
otherwise.

--jks


>in france, racists opinions are punished by law. opinions that openly 
>threaten
>the constitution are as well (as far as i remember) and i think there are 
>also
>provisions for fascist opinions (esp related to nazism etc). do you think
>french 'democracy'/society offers a 'less' free environment even though 
>total
>freedom of opinion is not respected ?
>
>
>i am curious about this, because everywhere i go and if there are americans
>around it is immediately supposed that 'freedom of speech' is granted.
>
>isn't it that freedom of speech is used mostly by the bourgeois class to
>oppress and is left to the workers so that they think they can free 
>themselves?
>
>does not putting limits to freedom of speech equate putting limits to
>capitalist exploitation (through racism/sexism etc) ?
>
>((((((((
>
>CB: Well, vous savez, Engels and Marx had this rough formula that England 
>was first in economics, Germany first in philosophy, and France first in 
>politics; and today France is ahead of the U.S. on this question of 
>political speech.
>

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