Why are people allowed to publish and read, broadcast and view things that are illegal?

If it is illegal to do it in real life, then why do we as American citizens allow things that are illegal to be viewed by everyone no matter the age or mental circumstance? Children are allowed to watch TV, Internet and videos that are totally inappropriate and people who are mentally disadvantaged have no understanding that what they see on TV is not something appropriate for them to do. People can check out videos of hideous cruel acts of violence being done to another person yet when a person mimics those actions they are allowed so easily to view via the internet and different Medias, they could be imprisoned for misconduct.





Where does our responsibility concerning the fact that what we allow people to view and read, we are actually educating them how to do, come into play. Perhaps the right to free speech and free press is more to our detriment than to our good and we need to consider casting out old laws that no longer protect us and creating new laws that would truly help us free from the horror and bondage that many people see via the different Medias and then inflict on other people in real life because the idea was put into their minds from watching it.


As more and more people lose their moral reasoning through drug and alcohol abuse and as more and more victims of occult abuse and other sexual abuse situations split into different personalities doing hurtful and unkind things to other people; and as more and more people are being educated that life is just an illusion and that there is no good or evil and that whatever happens to someone is neither good or bad, it just is, our society will continue to breed more and more people willing to inflict pain and suffering on others thus creating more and more mentally disturbed individuals who then need the financial assistance of the state to live off because they are unable to work and function normally in society because of the traumatic abuse inflicted upon them. If all this insanity is allowed to continue it won’t be long before our hurtful acts have affected so many people in such negative ways that the majority of American citizens will be mentally dysfunctional. Who then would be in control the country?





The different Medias have desensitized most Americans to the point that the majority of Americans no longer view murder as being disrespectful or hurtful to another human being and most see no wrong in being deceitful. The different Medias have desensitized Americans to the point that we think it is funny to be abusive and throw and hit things. How many cartoons can a child even watch without being exposed to at least 100 acts of violence or negative feedback from one character to another portrayed to a person or an object?





Most people learn best from example, what kind of example do we as Americans want our children being raised around? Is there any wonder there is so much violence, road rage, gang fights etc. This violence is not being learned from a proper spanking to the clothed behind when a parent is correcting a child for a misdeed trying to teach them proper moral principles and behaviors to help them become honest, trustworthy, productive adults, it is being modeled by our negative Media characters! What responsibility do all those producers earning millions of dollars off the violence they project out to the American people have for the example they set?

Why are people allowed to publish and read, broadcast and view things that are illegal?
Because it makes good reading/entertainment.





Children should not be exposed to materials that may warp their ethics and sense of right and wrong.





Adults should know when to change the channel or put away "bad" information.





Everybody should have someone to talk to, so they can discuss disturbing things that happened.





The de-sensitizing is not good, lots of people don't care any more, but what happened first? I am not so sure if the media started it.





It takes people watching to make certain shows.
Reply:It's called freedom of speech, which should resonate with hardline leftists and rightists as the very thing, the very principle enshrined by the Declaration of Independence, that protects their right to criticize freedom of speech.





People who protest freedom of speech and the misuse of it (subjective interpretation) are using freedom of protest and freedom of speech to do so. It is not up to the Supreme Court to determine what someone's rights are in terms of freedom of speech. It is also wrong to protect the rights of certain groups--e.g. homophobic family values groups, pro-life militants, the N.R.A.--over others.
Reply:While I agree about not liking to see all the cr@p on tv, movies, magazines and the like...it is not up to the media(although they should care more) to raise children. It's the parents and other family members. And hopefully they would teach their kids better morals. Too bad these kids don't hang out with other kids that have higher morals. Too bad more kids are not exposed to church.


Too many of our rights have already been taken away from us...I don't want to see more taken away.
Reply:Children can't watch TV, DVDs or play video games if their parent's don't let them. I am SO tired of American parents trying to be their kid's best friend, instead of being an adult and laying down the law.





Children need strict discipline and guidance; they need limits and they need punishment when they overstep the mark.





Where are all the parents in America?





Now, as an adult, paying plenty of taxes, and not burdening the system in any way, I expect the liberty to watch whatever entertainment I want in the privacy of my own home. Should I chose to, that included unedited, unbleeped, unpixelated movies at 6pm; porn if I want to; Straw Dogs and other hyper-violent movies, and anything else that hollywood makes. I get to make the decisions in my house; parents should make the decisions in theirs.





Oh - and don't forget the crazy V chip that Clinton made the industry install in every new TV - I've never met ONE parent that has turned that chip on!
Reply:A very good question, that has a complex answer. While the answer is undoubtably "because we have the First Amendment to the US Constitution," we have to look behind the amendment to get to the real reason why. The framers of the US Constitution enacted the First Amendment specifically so that the government could not arrest one for dissident or unpopular speech. The framers realized that in a democracy (of whatever democratic form you have - pure democracy, representative republic, ...) the rights of the majority do not require protection as the majority can pass whatever laws they choose. In such a democratic system, it is the rights of the MINORITY that require protection from the potential wrath of the majority. This is why we have the First Amendment - so that unpopular speech still can be heard and be debated freely in this country. If we allowed unpopular speech to be supressed, like for example the ramblings of Muslim clerics in the Middle East who call for jihad against the US, then how long would it be before all political speech from (peaceful) Muslims in this country would be supressed? Then we could supress printing, distribution and reading of the Muslim holy book the Koran... Then maybe we outlaw the Jewish Bible... then the Mormons go next... etc... That is why we have the right to read unpopular speech in this country.
Reply:As my professor used to say: "It's not illegal to smell like marijuana..."
Reply:where is your responsibility as a parent to control what your kids watch? Would you delegate your parental rights to the government? Read 1984 instead of watching TV.
Reply:You make good points but expect big business to nanny the masses. Secondly, freedom is of extreme importance. Who will legislate what is right or wrong? I'd rather decide for myself.

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