What I find disturbing is her self identifiation as a "douchebag"...I seem to see more and more people thinking that sort of label as a good thing. The Jersey Shoreing of society.
It may well be true, and I see your point. But I also think that finding the most offensive thing possible and then doing it with great gusto has been a hallmark of the young seeking freak out the older generation since approximately ever.
People also seem confused about what the first amendment protects them from and what it does not.
Well, it is quite true that the First Amendment protects a person's right to freedom of expression, but does not protect them from the consequences of their actions. In other words, if she gets fired from her job because of people expressing their anger at her employer, her rights have not been violated. But society has effectively imposed a practical limit on that freedom, where the government does not. See where I'm going with this? The government says such public speech is protected. Society says if she in fact engages in it, the price will be heavy indeed, such as it will serve to have a chilling effect on anyone thinking of expressing their opinions in a similar way.
I'm with you Bill. A disgusting example of what I see as a distrubing behavorial trend, and an example of how the media has changed the consequences of our behavior. But in the end nothing worth storming the castle over.
If I was an employer though, I would have to question this persons common sense and good judgement.
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Well, I spent some time at Gettysburg National Cemetery some time ago with family and friends. I saw the same sign, and found it powerful and moving. Of course, I was both silent and showed respect. However, I noticed families wandering around chatting away on their cell phones, kids running over graves with their parents doing and saying nothing about it, people making funny or snide comments about facial expressions on statues, and so on. None of them had their disrespectful behavior recorded and posted online as far as I know, but they were all (to my way of thinking) disrespectful. Are they not also worthy of losing their jobs? Do they not also lack common sense and good judgment?
My point here is that there was a time in America and indeed in the world, when one did not dare step out of line, because the social consequences could be severe. Being ostracized by one's church, by the town, by society in general, could have devastating effects. If one held conflicting opinions, one kept them to oneself.
Then we had all this freedom stuff, and people went nuts with it.
Now we seem to be returning to a sort of instant societal thumbs up / thumbs down model. We (society) are Caesar. The act performs, and we either give it it a thumbs up, in which case their video does Gangnam Style dancing all over Creation, or we give it a thumbs down, in which case the performer soon has no job, no house, no food, and in fact if they are found in a roadside ditch with their throat cut, so much the better.
One dare not anger Caesar, eh? Woe betide anyone who expresses a strong public belief that others find objectionable.
Last point: we also live in the land of 'all my sins remembered'. Everything we say online may be recorded somewhere and available to one who is looking for it. One may find that not only do they lose their job (perhaps justly) for an act of youthful indiscretion, but that one is punished for the rest of their life for it.
