Stop citing the 1st amendment; stop telling people not to be offended.
The 1st amendment says that government shouldn't be allowed to limit free speech. Yes. But that doesn't mean that ordinary citizens shouldn't be allowed to stand up and tell an dumb jerk that he's being a dumb jerk, that his cartoon, in addition to being just really lame and overall not a good joke, is also hurtful because it trivializes a serious problem.
Get this through your head: free speech means PEOPLE GET TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S FREE SPEECH. That, too, is and AMERICAN RIGHT. As long as we're not calling for legal limitations, as long as we're not saying the guy should be thrown in jail, then we're not calling for some kind of police-state censorship; we're not shredding the first amendment. We're exercising our own first amendment rights.
We're just pointing out what an incredibly bad piece of cartooning it was. It wasn't in any way nuanced or clever (which is how really good cartoons, such as South Park, get away with it -- they are actually intelligently offensive), it was a cheap shot. As consumers of the Wildcat's product, we have every right to let them know when the material that they produce is subpar and not worthy of publication. We have every right to do this. The guy didn't do his job as cartoonist. That is grounds for being fired. Don't defend him.
It's not a meaningless crusade. Words matter; they affect how we see the world. It is entirely appropriate for people to be pissed right now.
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The 1st amendment says that government shouldn't be allowed to limit free speech. Yes. But that doesn't mean that ordinary citizens shouldn't be allowed to stand up and tell an dumb jerk that he's being a dumb jerk, that his cartoon, in addition to being just really lame and overall not a good joke, is also hurtful because it trivializes a serious problem.
Get this through your head: free speech means PEOPLE GET TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S FREE SPEECH. That, too, is and AMERICAN RIGHT. As long as we're not calling for legal limitations, as long as we're not saying the guy should be thrown in jail, then we're not calling for some kind of police-state censorship; we're not shredding the first amendment. We're exercising our own first amendment rights.
We're just pointing out what an incredibly bad piece of cartooning it was. It wasn't in any way nuanced or clever (which is how really good cartoons, such as South Park, get away with it -- they are actually intelligently offensive), it was a cheap shot. As consumers of the Wildcat's product, we have every right to let them know when the material that they produce is subpar and not worthy of publication. We have every right to do this. The guy didn't do his job as cartoonist. That is grounds for being fired. Don't defend him.
It's not a meaningless crusade. Words matter; they affect how we see the world. It is entirely appropriate for people to be pissed right now.