If you remember, maybe or maybe not, I wrote a post on legally vs. ethically, and another one shortly after. This goes back to that post, so if you haven’t checked it out, here’s the link. ( ICE link and My voice. – both also relate to this topic)
Anyway, I want to talk about ethically vs. legally vs. morally because it plays a key factor in the Capitol riots and in the company firings. People are being fired for participating in the riots or even for agreeing with the riots. But why? This is where these three parts come in. Let’s first go to the start of all this. When President Trump told people to go to the Capitol. People have the right to excise their first amendment as much as they want, but there’s a line to this. There’s a line to everything. Let’s ask: Why is President Trump wrong in this? President Trump is, well, the president. He’s a public figure which everyone knows and has an influence on others. People will listen to him. People look up to him or even other public figures and look to their influence. It would have been fine if President Trump wasn’t a public figure, but because he is, it was wrong of him to tell people to go to the Capitol. Think of it this way. ( WW2 reference)
During WW2, were all the Germans at fault for their heinous crimes and actions? No. In a battle, soldiers are only following the order given by their superiors such as generals or commanders. They aren’t doing anything wrong, just following the order given by someone who has an influence. This is the same as the Germans. They only did these things under the influence of Adolf Hitler. He was a public figure and had quite a way with words, which heavily influenced a lot of the actions committed by the Germans. Don’t read this wrong. I’m saying that the influence President Trump has as a public figure is strong, and people will listen and will follow him. His responsibility as a public figure was “broken”. But also, it is the people who are also at fault. President Trump should have been stopped possibly years ago before he became a public figure. We don’t know the future or what could happen, but we should have stopped him long ago.
Why are the rioters also at fault? It’s because they crossed the line of their First Amendment. Of course, they were LEGALLy allowed to exercise their rights, but ethically it was wrong. They made the wrong decision in following what President Trump said. What they did was disrespectful and incredibly shocking. People stormed the Capitol and disrupted the electoral vote counting. They threw desks and pedestals over and vandalized the building. Here is the line they have crossed. The line that when crossed, does not protect them.
” Speech provoking actions that would harm others-true incitement and/or threats- is also not protected, but again determining what words have qualified as true incitement was been decided on a case-by-case basis.”
This is exactly what happened. Let’s move on to businesses. Businesses have been firing people because of their morales. When companies hire someone, they look at their morals and intentions. They want to hire people with the right intentions and morals when doing something. A Texas attorney was fired because he made a post supporting what the rioters did. Legally he did nothing wrong. Nothing wrong at all. he stayed within the limits of his first amendment, but he got fired because he should NOT have said it. It was not right to make that post. If the companies kept the peopel who did something like this, people would question their morals. They would wonder what company would hire people who would riot the Capitol. Not many peopel would come to work for them. And so, that is why they would fire the workers. Not because of the legal acts or not, but the morales. ( Well, maybe legal acts. They can’t just hire someone who was in prison for getting away with murder or something.) Everything is a question between legally or ethically. Is it legal to do this, and even, is it right? Is it the right morale or not?
