Oregon Admits It Violated Free Speech Rights of Mats “I Am an Engineer” Jarlstrom

DeathFromBelow said:

I got the impression from previous reporting that this guy has been harassing his local government for months/years about a ticket his wife got. Look up his presentation about the construction of the street if you can still find it and you'll start to understand why they tried to throw the book at him.

There's a guy like this in my town. Kinda crazy and he goes to every city council meeting to ask weird questions but nobody can legally force him to go away.

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Careful dude, don't go against the grain here. Everyone is all twisted over this and treating this guy like he's some folk hero.

Thanks for sharing though, it reinforces my understanding of the situation and how he dug his hole. 90% of the people here will ignore it though, they've made up their minds that the damn gubmint is 100% wrong 100% of the time.

Ultima99 said:

Careful dude, don't go against the grain here. Everyone is all twisted over this and treating this guy like he's some folk hero.

Thanks for sharing though, it reinforces my understanding of the situation and how he dug his hole. 90% of the people here will ignore it though, they've made up their minds that the damn gubmint is 100% wrong 100% of the time.

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Excellent technique of projecting a pejorative perspective onto those with whom you disagree. Not speaking for others, my view is that the government should never be 100% of anything, at any time.

So, this guy may be an ass-hat. He's still an engineer and can still sign a letter that way. And, as a US citizen, he has the right to speak and NOT be prosecuted for that speech (with some very narrow exceptions). The government tried to attack him for his speech. That is the error and that is why the individuals concerned should be punished.

Even ass-hats get to share their opinion with city hall without being prosecuted.

DeathFromBelow said:

I got the impression from previous reporting that this guy has been harassing his local government for months/years about a ticket his wife got. Look up his presentation about the construction of the street if you can still find it and you'll start to understand why they tried to throw the book at him.

There's a guy like this in my town. Kinda crazy and he goes to every city council meeting to ask weird questions but nobody can legally force him to go away.

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What I am 'hearing' you say :

Unpopular is wrong and our society should be able to shut such people down and push them out of government.

Trying to fix something, real or imagined, is wrong when the people in power dont want change.

Power should not be questioned - except by approved voices and approved ideas.

Who was it that said a little revolution is a good thing?

Ultima99 said:

Careful dude, don't go against the grain here. Everyone is all twisted over this and treating this guy like he's some folk hero.

Thanks for sharing though, it reinforces my understanding of the situation and how he dug his hole. 90% of the people here will ignore it though, they've made up their minds that the damn gubmint is 100% wrong 100% of the time.

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Bullshit, you never said any of that stuff because you never thought it., and none of your arguments was about this at all. You're looking for any kind of semblance justification that maybe just possibly you may be technically correct on one of your many posts.

I understand that it feels like this thread is everyone against you. You keep changing your argument to try to justify your position and you keep getting called on it. While there is the possibility that you landed on the forum where everyone is wrong and you are right, maybe you should take a critical look at the points presented in this thread, in order, and see if they still make sense. You might find that now that you know the situation a bit better, your perspective might have changed.

Elf_Boy said:

What I am 'hearing' you say :

Unpopular is wrong and our society should be able to shut such people down and push them out of government.

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Opinions are like assholes.

As far as I can tell this guy has been harassing his local government for years over a minor ticket. I'm inclined to think he's just a troublemaker.

DeathFromBelow said:

Opinions are like assholes.

As far as I can tell this guy has been harassing his local government for years over a minor ticket. I'm inclined to think he's just a troublemaker.

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Yes, because local governments don't give out tickets that aren't because of their engineers ineptitude. We had a city around here who had the service drive to I-75 at 20mph. There was a traffic survey done and Mdot told them the speed limit has to be a minimum of 35mph. It took them over a year and multiple court cases for the city to finally change the speed limit.