Some Knowledge

I just spent the last hour reading about libel and sedition laws.  I must have been really bored to have read legal documents like that.  Still, it was fairly interesting.  I don’t know if I actually learned anything, but there was a lot of information there.

I found some kind of law site by searching for the first amendment.  It seems we live in a country with at least some freedom of speech.  We can even criticize the government, which is how I found the whole sedition issue.
It seems in 1798 congress passed something called the sedition act, which made it illegal to talk about overthrowing the government.  So, the courts had to rule on some cases and found that yes, you are allowed to criticize the government as long as you don’t incite anyone to start shooting.  At least that’s what I got out of reading like ten pages of arguments.  It’s hard to get any useful information out of an argument, but that’s all lawyers write about, so it’s what I had to work with.

Libel seems to be trickier.  Apparently it matters in a libel case whether you’re a public figure or a private person.  It seems you can be more critical of public figures, because a lot of people talk about them.  Still, you can’t go around telling malicious lies about people.  It seems to matter as well what your motivation is.  If you are intending to hurt somebody’s reputation it is different than if you just repeat wrong information in good faith.  Figuring out why people do something is why we have a court system, I guess.

So, I read and read and it all seemed so logical.  None of the words were spelled wrong, and although the sentences got a bit convoluted, they all seemed to close up nice and logically.  There were some tricky issues with the whole fighting word thing.  It seems you can piss people off enough to make them attack you just by speaking words to them.  Of course, we all know this is true, but just who should you look to for judgment when some random person is standing there calling you all kinds of insulting names?  It’s hard to make a rational decision when you are blinded by anger.  Usually it’s best to walk away, or run, depending on how bad the person insulting you is trying to get you to start a fight.

So, I was reading about the whole legal issue of free speech and all to pass the time, and you know, you have to consider these things when you write anything for the net.  You don’t want to get people angry at you, but then, you are entitled to speak your mind.  I know on a lot of forums and comment-enabled sites there are people who will leave abusive or threatening posts.  It’s the perceived anonymity of the net that makes people think they can get away with being nasty.  It’s best just to be careful.  If you want to say somebody’s an idiot, perhaps suggest that they lack education.  If some person has a different opinion than you, leave your own opinion instead of an insult.  Communication is about an exchange of ideas, not attempts to enrage your opponent.

We live in a world where people accept violence and anger as forms of entertainment.  Perhaps it’s not surprising that so much animosity finds its way into the popular media.  It’s sad that we need courts to settle people’s disputes, but then, it gives the lawyers something to do.  Maybe I was bored to be reading up on the law, but the world might be a better place if more bored people decided to learn things instead of getting into arguments with each other.