It doesn't matter — a country which punishes such speech is not free.
It was in bad taste, but bad taste is not a crime. What is a crime is using violence to take $42,000 from someone merely for saying words.
It was in bad taste, but bad taste is not a crime. What is a crime is using violence to take $42,000 from someone merely for saying words.
A fine is enforced with the threat of violence. Knowing that someone somewhere is laughing at one is not, in fact, violence.
It takes two to humiliate: one to mock, and one to accept the mockery.
Could we even have meaningful political dialog if, for example, it was illegal to intentionally offend Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?
The idea of a right to not be insulted has scary implications.
That's actually exactly what Citizens United was about … a group of people were trying to show a film critical of Mrs. Clinton, and the federal government attempted to punish them for it. That's why there was a big push in 2014 to repeal the First Amendment: politicians wanted to make it illegal to oppose politicians.
Luckily they're not doing that. They're waiting for the offence to cause harm, and then they step in.