[ExI] yelling fire

[William Flynn Wallace]

You're making a lot of assumptions here.  Are you sure every theater has
carpet and seat covers that don't release toxic chemicals when heated?  Who
is in charge of confirming that this is true?  Older theaters would have
had to come up to code (assuming that there is one in every single
community that has a theater).  I have strong doubts as to whether all this
has happened everywhere.   Plus, normal human behavior (something you might
not be all that familiar with) says "Get up and run over people!"  bill w

On Fri, Apr 9, 2021 at 10:09 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> I heard an expression this week that reminds me of my cheerfully misspent
> childhood: You can’t yell fire in a crowded theatre.  I always assumed it
> true.  But… is it?  I understand it is a reference to the limits of free
> speech.  It makes reference to something the old timers all understood but
> moderns do not.
>
>
>
> In the old days, theatres were made of wood and were full of flammables.
> They had no sprinkler systems, no smoke detectors, no fire alarms, no
> extinguishers, grossly insufficient emergency exits.  Proles would trample
> each other in panic trying to get out if anyone screamed fire.
>
>
>
> What would happen if someone did that now?  Answer: probably nothing.  I
> wouldn’t get out of my seat.  Any building that meets modern fire code
> doesn’t really burn worth a worry.  The carpet is fire suppressed, drywall
> doesn’t burn at all, there are smoke detectors everywhere.  If someone
> started screaming fire, the bouncer would likely throw the bum out, but I
> doubt there would be legal consequences.
>
>
>
> Conclusion: you can yell fire in a crowded theatre.
>
>
>
> spike
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