However, although it is protected legally, it is not honored individually.
Bullshit: Americans enjoy the freedom of speech more so than anyone else.
The truth: Actually, Americans don't enjoy the freedom of speech very much at all.
Before you think I'm nuts, think about the last meeting with friends you had (not in college). What did you talk about? The counter top? The wine? The food? The dog? The cat? The car? Anything but the world, news, politics etc. Anything but things that matter to us. So in many ways it's like you met them, said some stuff, but one thing stays the same: you leave without having learned anything.
But when with friends from other parts of the world, we'd talk about just about anything. We make fun of our own countries, talk about world events, about personal experiences and what they mean... so why is it that whenever I sit down with other Americans, this just simply halts and we're back to engaging in conversation that simply serves as a distractor?
Sometimes I'll start a topic like the ones I mentioned with a group of Americans to see what their reaction is and they immediately start getting very uncomfortable. They avoid it and try to switch the topic to something else. I'm sure if I pressed it further they'd try to avoid me altogether eventually.
So you see my friends, freedom of speech in America is actually also an illusion. Where millions of people sit at the lunch table or grab a smoke and talk about the world, disagree and still greet each other the next day with genuine smiles it seems to be an impossibility in the United States.
Why?
I guess there are many reasons.
One, I think at some point Americans have become too small inside and have developed very thin skin. Never at any point have they thought that if they can't explain their belief very well, that there is a possibility that they may be wrong.
Ultimately, I think the biggest culprit is the cable "news" services.
Selling Hate
They have rubbed our heads together like roosters in a... er... cock fight and we've gotten to the point where we are so angry at each other (since they make money off inciting hate) that we can't for a minute try to sit back and understand each other's views or even have the patience to see how the other party even see the world.
Free speech. Dead. Thanks to free speech of inciting hate and intolerance.
Interesting point. When I teach conversation I go out of my way to tell my students to not talk about race,sex, politics or religion. You know anything interesting. But they can say how's the weather?
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