They're lyrics. Admittedly puerile and tasteless, but every lyricists from Shakespeare to Springsteen (and lots of others that don't alliterate as well) can be accused of stupid lyrics in at least some of their works.
I don't like blanket value judgements of people's intelligence based on a ridiculously small sample group of their behaviours. It's sensationalist, reactionary and half of what I see wrong with society.
EDIT: I'd also like to say that you, sir, are responsible for one of my favourite HN comments in the last few weeks (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5702566). I beleive that made me giggle while drinking tea, and almost burnt my sinuses :-)
"Free" is not a characteristic of the content of the speech; it's a characteristic of the consequences of such speech.
You're right that this speech wasn't free, but that's because the kid's in jail, not because it's "nonsense".
What is more wrong with society, in my opinion, is that we interpret "the right to free speech" as "the right to say nonsense".
When you say that some speech doesn't deserve freedom because it's "nonsense", you give those who want to silence speech an easy way - just label it as "nonsense". And after all, ideological dissent is almost by definition "nonsense" to those who believe in the status quo.
By "nonsense", I mean inflammatory speech with no defined purpose. I base this on social norms because this is a society.
I get the argument you're trying to make. 99% of the time, I'd roll with you. The real exercise of free speech in this whole thing is our dialogue, which I will fight for. I'm not going to fight for Cammy Dee, however.
I don't like blanket value judgements of people's intelligence based on a ridiculously small sample group of their behaviours. It's sensationalist, reactionary and half of what I see wrong with society.
EDIT: I'd also like to say that you, sir, are responsible for one of my favourite HN comments in the last few weeks (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5702566). I beleive that made me giggle while drinking tea, and almost burnt my sinuses :-)