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Penn Jillette?s Opinion on the Possibility the USA is Moving Toward Limiting Free Speech: ?I absolutely think that?s complete hype and jive. The side that wants to do censorship is about 10,000 people total. They write a zillion letters about a black woman?s breast and they try to rally together and get political power. They have none. They?re dying. They?re falling away and what you?re seeing in these flashes of power is desperate death throws.
Meanwhile, the other side, Hollywood, the liberals, is about 100,000 people that think it?s really sexy to be a martyr. And that have no guts and no hearts and they go, ?Oh, we?re being oppressed, we?re being oppressed.? Meanwhile, while these 110,000 people play out their little sick psychodrama, Eminem has the number one album in the country and says ?F**k George Bush? on it.
Meanwhile, the entire country, everybody says, ?Oh, the French were laughing at us about the whole Super Bowl thing.? Yeah, but so was every American. If you round off the number of Americans that thought the Super Bowl thing was stupid, if you round that off, it?s 100%.
I think that we are in a country where even the AMC guy who doesn?t want to show ?The Aristocrats? believes very strongly in free speech. He?s just saying that for his chain, he wanted to get some publicity by saying, ?This movie has some obscenity in it so I?m not going to show it,? and that?s his way to play his card to get some press that says, ?Oh, we?re very careful what we sell.
We don?t mind violent anal rape in ?Irreversible? or 9/11 images in ?War of the Worlds,? but we?re putting our foot down at people laughing at dirty words.?
And that?s a fine thing for him to do and if you asked him, ?Do you think there should be a government agency that stops certain movies from coming out?? I would guess, I?ve never met him, I don?t even remember his name, I think it?s Dick, he would say no.
?I think this whole ?The country is going right da da da da da, this is all falling apart?? When you?ve got Eminem and every NASCARr driver we know telling dirty jokes, I don't think there?s any danger to freedom of speech. I think it?s all hype and it?s a very dangerous hype because if you repeat it enough, then people start getting scared. But all you have to remember is the rappers are in the front lines and the rappers are doing fine. 2 Live Crew was jailed. That is a moment in American history we should all be ashamed of. Lenny Bruce was jailed. But lately, you really haven?t had anyone whose freedom of speech has been stopped.
Freedom of speech has only gone in one direction in this country if you look at 50 year humps. It?s only gotten better. And I think that? You know, I?m an atheist, I?m a libertarian, I think I could sit down with 99% of the hardcore Baptists in this country and say to them, ?Okay, we?re not talking about what you think is good. We?re not talking about what you think our politicians should talk about is good. We?re not talking about what licensing should be taken care of. But do you think that anybody should be actually stopped from saying or singing or doing what they want?? And I think all of those people, for all of our differences, are really good Americans and the First Amendment is really clear.?
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Penn Jillette?s Opinion on the Possibility the USA is Moving Toward Limiting Free Speech: ?I absolutely think that?s complete hype and jive. The side that wants to do censorship is about 10,000 people total. They write a zillion letters about a black woman?s breast and they try to rally together and get political power. They have none. They?re dying. They?re falling away and what you?re seeing in these flashes of power is desperate death throws.
Meanwhile, the other side, Hollywood, the liberals, is about 100,000 people that think it?s really sexy to be a martyr. And that have no guts and no hearts and they go, ?Oh, we?re being oppressed, we?re being oppressed.? Meanwhile, while these 110,000 people play out their little sick psychodrama, Eminem has the number one album in the country and says ?F**k George Bush? on it.
Meanwhile, the entire country, everybody says, ?Oh, the French were laughing at us about the whole Super Bowl thing.? Yeah, but so was every American. If you round off the number of Americans that thought the Super Bowl thing was stupid, if you round that off, it?s 100%.
I think that we are in a country where even the AMC guy who doesn?t want to show ?The Aristocrats? believes very strongly in free speech. He?s just saying that for his chain, he wanted to get some publicity by saying, ?This movie has some obscenity in it so I?m not going to show it,? and that?s his way to play his card to get some press that says, ?Oh, we?re very careful what we sell.
We don?t mind violent anal rape in ?Irreversible? or 9/11 images in ?War of the Worlds,? but we?re putting our foot down at people laughing at dirty words.?
And that?s a fine thing for him to do and if you asked him, ?Do you think there should be a government agency that stops certain movies from coming out?? I would guess, I?ve never met him, I don?t even remember his name, I think it?s Dick, he would say no.
?I think this whole ?The country is going right da da da da da, this is all falling apart?? When you?ve got Eminem and every NASCARr driver we know telling dirty jokes, I don't think there?s any danger to freedom of speech. I think it?s all hype and it?s a very dangerous hype because if you repeat it enough, then people start getting scared. But all you have to remember is the rappers are in the front lines and the rappers are doing fine. 2 Live Crew was jailed. That is a moment in American history we should all be ashamed of. Lenny Bruce was jailed. But lately, you really haven?t had anyone whose freedom of speech has been stopped.
Freedom of speech has only gone in one direction in this country if you look at 50 year humps. It?s only gotten better. And I think that? You know, I?m an atheist, I?m a libertarian, I think I could sit down with 99% of the hardcore Baptists in this country and say to them, ?Okay, we?re not talking about what you think is good. We?re not talking about what you think our politicians should talk about is good. We?re not talking about what licensing should be taken care of. But do you think that anybody should be actually stopped from saying or singing or doing what they want?? And I think all of those people, for all of our differences, are really good Americans and the First Amendment is really clear.?