Free Speech

You know what I see in decline both here in the U.S. and worldwide? It's free speech. It used to be a person could say whatever he or she wanted as long as slander or liable were not committed. That is, you can't say or write an untruth about someone that injures him or her. Beyond that we are guaranteed by our laws that we can say what we ant. If I think you are wearing a funny looking hat I can say so...it's not illegal because saying that causes nio tangible injury to you.. And that's the way it should be. That was always the line to determine what speech cab be uttered. Howvere, it seems noit to be so anymore!
Now we not only can't say untruthful and injurious things, but we also seem to not be allowed to say things that are unkind or hurt someone's feelings. How absurd! Given that the U.S. has the best protection for free speech and is the paradigm for it, the idea that we are being muzzled by public pressure in fear of "offending someone" should be disconcerting to both us and the world.. Take the recent case of a radio disk jockey who made an unkind joke toward the Rutgers University female basketball team. He called them "nappy headed Ho's" ( a comon regference used by rap Singers in their music) His remark was not slanderous and did not violate any laws but "hurt the feelings of minority members" who imagine them to be "racist" because he is a caucasion and most of them members of the team are black. What happened was that pressure was placed on the DJ's advertisers to drop his show from their sponsorship, to fire him. Civil rights advocates demanded he be fired and he subsequently was... simply for hurting the feelings of those who imagined offense. (If I hurt your feelings today, go ahead and fire me!)
As with Pope Benedict's remarks about Islam last year, the "offended" crowd demanded an apology from the radio host, then when that was (insincerely) extracted, they demanded his firing. But why should an entertainer be forced to apologize for making a joke on his radio show? Have we evolved now to the point where free speech has been replaced with speech that "hurts no one's feelings"? How does one know if his or her speech is "offensive"? It all seems silly.
Too bad the media fuels such controversies to sell newspapers or up TV ratings, and by encouraging control of offensive speech, limits free speech as a whole. The reason the U.S has laws against injurious speech, and not "hurtful speech" is because it is impossible to know when speeking whthere the words spoken will cause someone to be offended or not. So, the standard of free speech is not "offensiveness" but rather truthfulness and the damage caused by it.
I don't know if you agree, but I do not like a politically correct world, one in which I can be shouted down because I say or write something unpopular or "hurtful". Sometimes being hurtful is the only way to make a point, or perhaps a joke requires a cutting tint to it. Someone may be hurt or offened, but life does not guarantee us that we will never have such a feeling. and further....that hat you have really is funny looking....