Thomas Paine said that we are born with natural freedom to do whatever we want, but when we enter into a society we give up those freedoms and are given rights and responsibilities instead. One of the responsibilities is to respect the will of the majority. Here is why: As I said above, we gave up our freedom for rights in this society. We are not free. If we think we are free then it is only because we have never tried to do anything truly subversive/controversial. Our 'freedoms' extends only as far as they are protected by rights, and in this country there is no constitution so our rights are whatever is enshrined in law (which is always subject to interpretation) and after that it is whatever the majority hold our rights to be. Note here the important point that our rights don't stop where another persons rights begin, but they stop wherever the hell the majority want them to. Take for example assisted suicide: It doesn't affect society at large whether or not someone with a degenerative brain condition kills themselves or not. If they did kill themselves it wouldnt infringe on the rights of anyone else, but assisted suicide is still illegal. This is simply because the majority don't like the idea. They find it troubling, or they simply don't care about the suffering of someone else to put in the effort of reconsidering the current societal norms. Also, new media by it's very nature is blinkered. Video/Audio/Text is an inherently one dimensional, depth first, process whereas events as they happen in real life are breadth first. No part of the world exists in a vacuum. All stories happen in context with a large variety of contributing factors, the media can not cover all of these. So of course the story doesn't get accurately portrayed. The media is not perfect by a long shot of course but in this country we have quite good access to information. People should be held accountable for their prejudices, not the government. All this said I think it's important I say that I completely support these two people in their awesome gothy stylings and leash wearing capers. I think a society where people expressed themselves through the way they dress would be awesome instead of just expressing "look at me i have a nike tshirt" or "i enjoy the music of <insert band here>". Right now I am wearing a t-shirt with a big greek letter pi on it (geeky, yay!). Everyone is trying to be an attention whore, even people who dress 'normally'. That's why people will spend loads of money on clothes just because they have some logo on them. Those types of people are just harder to see in everyday life, because they are all attention whoring in the same direction and we call it a culture.