Robot vs Vampire: WHO WOULD WIN?

[A Black Falcon]

Right, that's the key. Just like neo-nazis, you're free to say (or write) almost anything you want, as long as it doesn't actively harm anyone. So writing stories about murdering people is fine, as long as you don't then go out and kill people. It'll make anyone who reads your story wonder about your mental health, but it's legal... and is probably not going away anytime soon (for both good and ill) because of the constitution. Oh, sure, we're in an age of lots of attacks on the constitution, but I don't think that laws to restrict our freedoms of speech as much as would be required to ban stories about killing people, or raping children, or whatever would requre (more than you think, I'm sure -- as the congress found out, it's really hard to get any laws passed -- and declared constitutional -- that restrict the right of free speech... defining exactly what should be legal and what shouldn't is really hard. So which stories are illegal -- ones where a character is murdered? Raped? Any time someone below the age of consent is involved -- and remember, every state has different laws about when it's legal, making it an even murkier issue than it already is (like what about sci-fi stories with thousand-year-old characters who only LOOK twelve? Or robots?_)...? Simply anything involving homosexuality, for the strong radical right branch in our government?)

The point is, drawing a line is hard. It'd be a really hard law to pass, and even harder law to make constitutional, and an almost impossible law to enforce, I'd think... I definitely understand the thought 'how is some of that stuff legal?', but when you look at the whole issue the reason is clear. Though if you lived in, say, Brazil, the answer would probably be different... but this is the US and we have more constitutionally gauranteed rights than most nations (still true, mostly, despite our government's best efforts to destroy them for the past four years...)