I understand that. But if your history is standing in the way of dealing with now then something has to change. Entropy is not an excuse. To be fair, we have the same inertia problem with racism in this country and it's also inexcusable.
Not just weird, but so self-contradictory as to make a mockery of the concept and render it meaningless.
Cartoonists should not have to live in fear of being shot at. Their greatest fear should be getting asked for old prints of their artwork.
The limits on liberty are the rights of others. No one's rights are violated by cartoons, satire, or comedy. No one's rights are violated by the elucidation of political positions that are abhorrent.
I'm not sure that total freedom of speech would be the solution now if that's what you mean. Given the current context it could make things even worse. By the way, it was not always like this in France. Back in the late 19th century and in the early decades on the 20th century there was a close to total freedom of speech, a bit similar to the one that exists in the US. The WWII that ended into a close to civil war situation in France made that we put slight limits to that.
You can say a lot of things "should" be this way or that. That's not going to get you far in a reality where the most successful and easy-to-use weapons of war is easily brought into a country with very strict laws against such things.
To be fair, it probably would make it worse in the short term. But the long term benefits will be tremendous.
There are various definitions of freedom of speech so I disagree with the word 'should'. One could also consider that you should not attack someone's dignity.
I don't think it's really the issue, to be honest. Freedom of speech is large enough and frankly no one complains about it.
What does this mean, how do you determine it, and how is this any different from living under a code of laws that explicitly prohibit blasphemy?
No, actually, I can't. Please tell me how, in a place that champions equalitie, you can have someone's speech mean more than someone else's. It's your burden to prove that no one complains about it.
Who said anything about mandating a culture of anything? You also might have to convince the Russians and other states who actually make the most successful rifle ever to stop. Good luck!
See the other thread. I've already explained it a dozen of times. There's no debate about that in France. Simple as that. Quite frankly, everybody is statisfied with that.
Al-Qaeda and ISIS recruitment ads on tv? Terrorist talk shows on cable? It's not going to happen in the US.