zlacker

>>Strato+(OP)
I'm a little bit aghast at all the comments saying this is normal or no big deal. Maybe it is normal (or at least common), but it shouldn't be. If you believe it's no big deal, I can't agree. I can see this kind of behaviour from adolescents, but adults should understand that words are meaningful and have consequences, and that even if you disagree with someone, they're still a human being who deserves some modicum of respect, or at least decency. Wishing a slow death on someone, even rhetorically, shows neither, to put it mildly.

>>tempes+EM
>but adults should understand that words are meaningful and have consequences

What consequences should Gary face?

>>s_dev+US
I am not a lawyer, but if some deranged individual who follows him takes his comment and face value and murders someone, he will face many consequences.

Firstly, he would be involved on murder. That's not a great experience to have, for most people.

He would at least be on trial. I don't exactly know how incitement to murder is treated in the US.

It could even be considered domestic terrorism (an assassination made to intimidate a group based on an ideological agenda/government policy). Then, I don't know what would happen, exactly. The FBI would probably get involved?

>>otikik+H51
He wouldn’t be prosecuted. Wishing death on political figures is a cherished American tradition, and well protected under the first amendment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threatening_the_president_of_t...

>>rayine+cb1
> Wishing death on political figures is a cherished American tradition

It's a strange sort of "cherished American tradition" that is so subtle that I, as a native American more than a half-century old, have never even heard of it being a tradition before.

>>JohnFe+QD1
There’s a link in the comment you’re replying citing a 1969 Supreme Court case about this very type of situation.

Yes Americans have cherished a very liberal/free definition of free speech rights.

>>ilikeh+9Q1
> Americans have cherished a very liberal/free definition of free speech rights.

Absolutely. That wasn't what I was questioning. What I'm questioning is the proposition that wishing death on people is a "cherished American tradition". I don't think it is.

The American tradition is to be very permissive about how far speech can go before it becomes illegal. That's a very different thing.