Discussion BeamMeUpScotty / Politics

Removed:

• Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. never used the phrase "shouting fire in a crowded theater" with reference to the restriction of free speech. What he actually said was,
  "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic. [...] The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent."
  • "Clear and present danger" is at least remembered correctly, but people tend to associate it with the Tom Clancy novel.

I do not think that when most people use this illustration when discussing the limits of free speech, they believe they are making a direct quote. This trope is about people thinking that they're directly quoting the exact words of a specific person, but this example is just people paraphrasing the idea originally communicated by Holmes. The Tom Clancy thing seems to have nothing to do with this trope.

Organize by era rather than country?

Currently Caesar is put under "Italy" but arguably one of his more important acts was conquering Gaul which is now France and he would have considered himself a Roman and nothing else. Where do we put people who were born in a part of a (former) empire but lived most of their live in another?

I don't know whether this setup does us any good.