Is free speech an illusion?

I disagree. A right that is excercisable must be free of adverse consequences. Think of it like a stock option. I have right right to buy something for a higher than market price, but I would be stupid to do so. Same thing with the free speech. For instance, a formal colleague made a good point. She says that one can hold a banner at UCLA and say "we support Israel" and he will be praised and probably make some friends in the process. However if I hold a banner that says "Let's support the Palestanians!" There will be severely negative consequences and some of which may not have justifiable grounds. In essence, the consequences themselves becomes a barrier to free speech and these barriers are controlled by the invisible force called "society". This invisible force is sometimes influenced or strengthen by the ignorant media.

I disagree. A right that is excercisable must be free of adverse consequences. Think of it like a stock option. I have right right to buy something for a higher than market price, but I would be stupid to do so. Same thing with the free speech. For instance, a formal colleague made a good point. She says that one can hold a banner at UCLA and say "we support Israel" and he will be praised and probably make some friends in the process. However if I hold a banner that says "Let's support the Palestanians!" There will be severely negative consequences and some of which may not have justifiable grounds. In essence, the consequences themselves becomes a barrier to free speech and these barriers are controlled by the invisible force called "society". This invisible force is sometimes influenced or strengthen by the ignorant media.

Although there is much greater support in the US for Israel and the Zionists than there is for the Palestinians, there's a strong anti-Israel BDS movement at UCLA and other university campuses throughout the US.

Pointing out the Zionists' oppression of the Palestinian peoples and taking a stand against it is not anti-Semitic.

Bullshit. There are lots of Jewish people who are quite critical of Israel.

Foofie, maybe you should ask some of your Jewish friends to explain why you are full of crap.

I concur with InfraBlue and Debra Law that consequences themselves are not necessarily a limitation to free speech. However, I must still point out that this freedom, although guaranteed by the constitution, can be influenced or limited by the society, or should I say more correctly, the media.

There's a sociology theory (I don't remember the formal name) that states if you see 2 restaurants, one with a huge line and the other with no one. Without knowing anything about these restaurants, studies have found that people tend to choose the more crowded one. People have this "pack mentality" that if everyone else believes something is good, it must be good. Even though it is possible for someone to believe otherwise initially, but it is much easier to convince someone to "join the pack" than to persuade someone to leave it. Even though the chooser may still believe otherwise, he has made his choice based on "the pack". It is much like a good attorney who is able to convince an unsuspecting jury to acquit a murderer.

I believe because of this "pack mentality", people are often reluctant to do their own research and come up with an objective view of the most critical issues. So really, the opinions many people give in public may not even be their own but rather the opinion of mass media that are probably ran by small interest groups.

. Maybe the "ignorant media" that you deplore isn't so ignorant after all and rely upon the ignorance of people and their willingness to blindly follow where it leads, like lemmings over a cliff. This is something you are beginning to suspect when you surmise mass media is probably ran by special interest groups.

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. Maybe the "ignorant media" that you deplore isn't so ignorant after all and rely upon the ignorance of people and their willingness to blindly follow where it leads, like lemmings over a cliff. This is something you are beginning to suspect when you surmise mass media is probably ran by special interest groups.

Ironically, the idea that lemmings run off cliffs is itself an example of people believing what mass media tells them.

Lemmings in nature don't run off of cliffs (which wouldn't make any evolutionary sense, would it?). The first famous video of lemmings running off of cliffs was faked as part of a Disney documentary-- the lemmings were actually forced off the cliff in the interest of better TV ratings.