tractorboybig, god, you're one of those. Let me speak slowly so you understand. Freedom of speech does not protect you from freedom of consequences. You are free to say racist things. If you use a private platform like Twitter or Facebook, they have every right to silence you. You're free to say "fire" in a crowded movie theater. You're not protected from the consequences. You're Freedom of speech protects you from the government silencing you, not private platforms. And guess what, that includes private football stadiums.

Racists hiding behind freedom of speech simply want to be racists without punishment.

Surely saying free speech comes with consequences is saying that free speech is not free speech at all. There is no such thing as free speech if you cannot say what you want to.

Obviously the first thing people will say to this is that it is better to restrict certain things because they don't need to be said and can cause more problems. That is a very popular position to take. Unfortunately it has become more extreme in recent times and has been extended to cover speech that should be allowed. Questioning the election results in the USA is a good example I can use here without having to worry too much as a UK citizen but you can think of other examples yourselves that do apply to us. Yes I am self-censoring and that is why this topic is never addressed properly.

The other way to regard free speech is just let people say what they want to say and the morally good views will be accepted and the bad views rejected. Humans as a whole are capable of decidinf for themselves what is right and wrong. We do not need the government telling us what to think as it can quickly get out of control when billions of dollars are involved.

Just thought I would show both sides to the argument and to close I would just say be very careful cheering on censorship. We are in danger of entering a cultural revolution if we haven't already and that is going to take over a generation to recover from. Too many of you just parroting what the media says. Only a few of you still have your wits about you judging by the comments.

Have to agree with europablue on this, a lifetime ban seems over the top, and the n word should not be used by all, but its used so casually b y the black community its hard to know where you stand. Should be out of bounds for all

Agree with Eddie and Europa. Whilst I do not agree with censorship in general I do think that it is OK in small amounts and must be equal across the board. Too much censorship or treating people differently creates segregation which we should know by now is a bad thing but it is making a huge comeback in the last couple of years. Thats why I say please do not cheer on censorship no matter how it is dressed up. The people behind it are evil and using kindness as a veil to disguise their agenda.