The common MO amongst right wingers is they claim that dissidents like Mahmoud Khalil is a “guest” and therefore they believe that he should not have the right to criticize the government.
What is your view on this?
Edit: Mr. Khalil has a Green Card btw, just to clarify.
Right wingers don’t stop with immigrants. “Love it or leave it” applies to everyone as far as they’re concerned.
Since it’s clear we’re talking about the US here, the 1st Amendment clearly states (emphasis added):
Congress shall make no law respecting … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
It says nothing about citizens, tourists, foreign nationals, etc. In fact, the amendment only limits what Congress can do (and the Supremacy clause extends this to the states). It doesn’t say “Citizens have the right to free speech.” It says “Congress shall pass no laws abridging the freedom of speech.”
It’s pretty clear that anyone and everyone has the right to free speech and assembly. The right wingers you’re talking about are trying to rewrite the first amendment to justify their fascism.
If we’re talking about the USA specifically, then the answer is yes. The Bill of Rights applies to everyone.
Well, it was yes.
What we’re all seeing now is that the Constitution ultimately depends on our willingness to agree to collectively abide by it.
It was always just a story, but while we all agreed to believe in it, it was a true story.
Everybody has a right to criticize anything they want.
I don’t have to visit the Sahara to know that it’s hot and dry there, and there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to say it’s too hot and dry for me to want to go there.
Someone else might criticize the Sahara for being too cold and wet. That doesn’t make any sense to me, and I can claim that they don’t know what they are talking about, but they have the right to believe that.
That depends on if we consider Thomas Paine a founding father or a criminal speaker.
Free speech means you can speak freely
I think that you should follow local norms. If you’re in the US, go for it. If you’re in Saudi Arabia, maybe keep that shit in your head.
Criticism and rebellion are our right, duty, and delight.
If there is something to criticize, everyone should do so. Criticism is a good thing: you don’t necessarily have to share it, but you can learn from it.
My interpretation is that visitors don’t have specific rights to criticize a government per-se. However! In most non-authoritarian countries, everyone has the unequivocal rights to criticize a government as long as they are not intending on disobeying other harassment/discrimination laws, regardless of their status. Since visitors are also included in “everyone”, they can criticize a government too
Of course this only applies to non-authoritarian countries. Authoritarian countries don’t have that right even for their citizens, so visitors are not excluded either
(I hate where this train of thought is going but whatever…)
Pragmatically: It depends on the country’s laws for free speech and criticism, your location, and a country’s extradition relationship.
Personally: Yes, we should all have the right to criticize our own and others’ governments. But we should also take the responsibility and initiative to get educated while doing so.
