Associate
- Joined
- 29 Jan 2003
- Posts
- 1,190
The 1st amendment undeniably grants Amercans far more freedom to speak their minds, without government interference, than is increasingly the case in the UK.
They've got a funny way of showing it - what with the increasingly draconian interference in what the press reports and what questions they can ask of elected representatives, the disappearing of targeted people off the street for articles they've written in the past, denying entry to / deporting people for posts on social media, withholding permissions from corporate entities to operate unless they fire specific comedians / journalists etc and, oh yeah, firing civil servants who won't pledge fealty to their orange god-king.
That's the thing with authoritarians - they say they want free speech but what they actually mean is they want free speech for them, not you. At this exact point in time, how much value does the 1st amendment have?
As to this case, the employer has a simple choice - fire all of the staff (and still be unable to serve him on the night in question) and suffer the reputational damage that would follow from dismissing what I gather are locals, or exercise their right as a private business to refuse service and not risk upsetting the customers that they depend on the other 364 days of the year.
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