In Zongheng's thoughts, since the poster has been found, the next disposal is very simple. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info Lydia herself is an FBI agent, and she went directly to the door to reveal her identity, with the weak style of that family, isn't it for her to be flattened and pinched?

But Lydia didn't. She just asked Jack to come out and check on him in the name of the police, which was just a warning.

As soon as Jack walked on his front foot, he couldn't help but ask, "Is this the end?" ”

"What's over?"

"Don't arrest them?"

"Catch it?" Lydia looked at Zongheng with an incredulous expression, "In what name?" ”

"They're slandering, they're personal attacks, they're even inciting riots, aren't they?" Vertical and horizontal learning is now using new words learned in the dictionary.

Lydia finally understood what Zongheng meant. She smiled bitterly: "Whether it's slander or not, we don't count what we said, it will only be counted if the judge confirms it." According to past jurisprudence, such a post would not be considered defamatory by a judge at all. It is even less likely to be considered a personal attack and incitement to riot. What's more, what about even slander? We can only demand an apology and compensation from the other party, and we cannot arrest the other party. ”

"Why?" Zongheng said that he was surprised, "You are an FBI agent, James is a well-known professor, and they are all people with status." Isn't the Zhao family violating your rights by doing this, and should be sanctioned? ”

Lydia didn't understand what he meant at first. After a long while, she suddenly understood and asked rhetorically: "What do you mean, because James and I have a relatively high status, and the Zhao family has a relatively low status, they attacked us on the Internet, and the judge should help us?" ”

"Isn't it?" Zongheng thought it was strange. Isn't it an attempt by officialdom to protect each other?

Lydia laughed, "Contrary to what you think. Because James and I are FBI agents and professors, even if we sue each other, the judge will be more biased towards the other side. Because the other side is at a disadvantage compared to us. ”

"Why is that? Isn't the United States a country that pays attention to fairness and justice? Zongheng felt that some of the ideas he had absorbed from the dictionary these days were about to be subverted.

"For the sake of free speech." Lydia replied without hesitation.

"Freedom of Speech from @由 (freedomofSpeech)......" chewed on the phrase, he had seen it in the dictionary and knew what it meant. But at this moment, he felt that he didn't understand the true meaning of the word at all.

"Shouldn't freedom of speech protect citizens' right to criticize the government?" he asked. But why is defamation also a category of free speech? And why is it that when the party with a higher social status is slandered by the lower party, it is necessary to favor the party with the lower status for the sake of freedom of speech? ”

"It's hard to answer these questions. I didn't answer well, you'd better find a researcher in this area to explain, it will be clearer. For example, the female doctoral student named Liu Yu hired by Moretti a few days ago. Lydia didn't expect that the conversation between the two would lead to such a big topic, and she was suddenly a little embarrassed.

Zongheng refused to let her go easily. He pleaded, "It's okay, just say what you understand." Liu Yu can't quench his thirst from far away, and if these problems can't be explained, I'm afraid I won't be able to read in the afternoon. ”

"Oh well! I have limited skills, so I can only explain as much as I can. Don't blame me for the bad explanation. Lydia laughed.

She thought for a moment, organized some wording, and began to explain: "You should know that the United States is a people@lord country. In order to uphold the democratic@sovereign system and prevent the emergence of dictators, we must protect citizens' right to criticize the government, which is the original purpose of freedom of speech. ”

Zongheng nodded and said, "It's the same as "Summoning the Public to Advise the King to Stop Slander". ”

Zongheng said it for granted, but Lydia was stunned. After all, she is a third-generation Chinese-American, and she has received the most orthodox American education.

Half out of curiosity, half out of time to organize the language, she simply followed the vertical and horizontal words and asked, "What are you talking about "Summoning the Public and Urging the King to Stop Slander"? Can you tell me about it? ”

Zongheng recited and explained this famous prose of the pre-Qin period (Note 1).

After listening to this, Lydia pondered for a long time and said, "Is this really a story that happened three thousand years ago? What a great political wisdom! What did you read from the history books the other day? ”

Zongheng said with some pride: "Of course! ”

In fact, Zongheng is lying. During his month in New York, he read history books that mentioned the story, but only briefly introduced it, so as to argue that the republican system originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty in China, and did not include the story in its entirety. This story was still seen in the Tang Dynasty. It's just that he thinks that he has read so many books, and Lydia will not be able to go through and check them one by one for this problem, so he simply panics.

Zongheng thought that this episode would be over, but he didn't know that Lydia had received an order from the top of the FBI, asking her to take close care of Zongheng and monitor him, pay attention to his thoughts, and guide him to become a loyal citizen of the United States of America. Otherwise, how could Lydia, with half a bucket of political theory, be willing to put so much effort into answering such complex political questions? And Zongheng's "Summoning the Public and Admonishing the King to Stop Slander" was also firmly remembered by Lydia, and she planned to write it back into the report and hand it over.

Lydia said, "The story you are telling is from the point of view of defending the ruler. But the purpose of free speech in the United States is to protect every citizen from being harmed by the rulers. ”

"I want to hear about it."

"To be free from the oppression and encroachment of the ruler, one must not expect the conscience of the ruler to find out. The democratic@sovereign system in the United States has its roots in the tradition of the Mayflower Convention. And the brutal War of Independence made Americans thoroughly understand that only by forcing @ to force the ruler to hand over part of the rights in his hands, let the rulers hand over part of the rights in his hands, and realize the mutual balance of rights, can they avoid the wanton oppression of the rulers. After the founding of the state, in order to avoid the recurrence of a high king or emperor, the founding fathers designed a political system of separation of powers and gave the people the right to supervise the government. This right of oversight consists mainly of the right to freedom of expression and the right to free elections. The people have the right to criticize any initiative of the Government. Even on the basis of criticism, the government was dismissed and a group of people who could listen to the voice of the people came to power. Among these two rights, freedom of speech is the cornerstone of all people's @ sovereign rights. Any careerist, in order to achieve autocracy and dictatorship, must first control speech, deprive the people of the right to think, and thus unconditionally approve of any action taken by the government. For example, the Nazis used the Reichstag arson case to control public opinion in the name of national security, thus establishing absolute rule over Germany and launching World War II. ”

Zongheng listened as if he understood but did not understand. His knowledge of history was limited to ancient and modern Chinese history, and he did not know much about world history, so whether it was the Mayflower Convention, the War of Independence, or the Nazis, it was not very good for him. But he didn't think it mattered, so he didn't interrupt Lydia.

"But in the process of protecting freedom of expression, we have found a problem, which is that in order to protect citizens' right to criticize the government, it is necessary to protect citizens' other speech."

"Why?" Incomprehensible.

"Let's take today's incident as an example!" Lydia thought as she said, "If Jack and I go to arrest the poster because we believe that his remarks are defamatory, then in a few days, when someone is dissatisfied with the current President George W. Bush, so he posts a criticism, calling him a traitor and an idiot, even if he scolds himself and is reasonable, will President George W. Bush be able to think that he is defamatory, and use the power of the government to block his speech, or even imprison him?" If this happens, will everyone be at risk and dare not criticize the government anymore? After all, as soon as you say that so-and-so leader is bad, it will immediately be recognized as slander, right? ”

"This ......," Lydia's words made it difficult for Zong and Zong to refute for a while.

He thought for a moment before he said, "But James is just a professor, not an official." Isn't it? Officials are subject to the supervision of public opinion, so criticism cannot be treated with defamation, but why should ordinary people endure such abuse? ”

Lydia smiled: "Because officials, parliamentarians, and presidents are also selected step by step from ordinary people@!" Theoretically, every American citizen has the opportunity to serve the country and become an official, a congressman, and even a president, so everyone is subject to the scrutiny of public opinion. And the higher the status, the greater the supervision. Therefore, if James posts some nonsense and nonsense things on the head of the Zhao family, the judge will think that this is defamation eight times out of ten@9, because James' social status is higher than that of the Zhao family. But on the other hand, if the Zhao family slanders James, as long as the content they make up is not very outrageous, they will not use the crime of defamation. Because the judge is thinking about protecting the right to freedom of speech of ordinary people. ”

After listening to it, he was silent for a long time. For this system, the vertical and horizontal are half admired, half depressed. I admire it because this system provides a guarantee for the people@lord system from the most detailed points, rather than empty words. But it's because of this. Zongheng still likes the way of doing things with pleasure and revenge, whoever provokes me, I will beat him. This kind of feeling that you can only be provoked by others but can't fight back is really uncomfortable.

Zong Zong asked in a muffled voice, "Do you just let them talk nonsense?" ”

"Of course not." "The reason why I asked Jack to come forward was to tell them not to think we didn't know what they were doing. We were able to mobilize the police, and while there was nothing we could do to take them in this matter, we could make them pay for other things at any time. So, do you understand? ”

"Just want to make a deal?" Zongheng asked.

"Yes. It's trading. Lydia replied.