[eshvk]

Free speech still stands. No one is stopping you from being stupid. Obviously when one is a public official, racism/idiocy in this situation comes into play and the person gets kicked out of office.Also being an Arab as far as I know is not a slur. One is not supposed to know every damn ethnicity that exists.

[Amadou]

Also being an Arab as far as I know is not a slur.

Context is everything. They didn't just idly identify her as an arab as in "Wow, an arab finally won Miss America" - they called her an arab as part of a larger effort to associate her with terrorism and debase her as being less of a person and therefore undeserving of winning.

Just because a racist is illogical in their hatred doesn't make their hatred any less real.

[eshvk]

Thanks for clarifying. To reiterate my point, I think the way free speech ideally should work is that you are technically free to be stupid. Don't be surprised if you get fired from your job. That is the responsibility you take on for spouting your opinion. That however does not mean that is something "sad" or "awful" which the parent post was implying. It simply is a function of outliers existing in a distribution of people. I am sure I can pick such outliers in any country of your choice.

[adi2412]

A mistake in identifying her ethnicity is fine. But what they did was call her an Arab to associate her with terrorism and thus insult her.

Free speech does exist. But do remember that any free country also stipulates that the freedom comes with the responsibility that you do not use your freedom to hurt others.

[eshvk]

> Free speech does exist. But do remember that any free country also stipulates that the freedom comes with the responsibility that you do not use your freedom to hurt others.

There is a distinction between "hurting someone" as in "yelling fire" in a crowded theatre to "hurting someone" as in going on twitter and spouting random crap. Sure, you can sue for emotional damages or whatever if you please. However, it really is not the same thing. At least the way it works in America. I know that in some European countries, one's free speech rights are limited (e.g. when it comes to holocaust denial or whatever).

[Amadou]

Free speech does exist. But do remember that any free country also stipulates that the freedom comes with the responsibility that you do not use your freedom to hurt others.

Joe Random twitter user can't hurt anyone by being an asshole on twitter.

The real free speech issue here is that freedom of speech runs both ways -- you are free to speak out and everyone else is free to speak out and criticize you for what you said.

[kingkilr]

What do you think free speech has to do with this?