The top trending topics since news of his firing are 'A&E' and 'Stand With Phil'


Here are some images people posted on twitter:

its his personal opinions we cant just attack someone and harrass them he doesn't want us killed hes just saying he doesnt know why gays wouldnt like it. leave him alone

Free speech also means freedom to criticize

Yah I'm real ****ing surprised the Tea Party is coming out of the woodwork to support this redneck.

Literally how embarrassing is it for someone like a governor to support a redneck reality show star? Could you imagine the turmoil if a politician supported Mike the Situation or Farrah from Team Mom?

lol at the tolerance goes both ways line so we should be tolerant of hateful ********? bye.

He is in the entertainment industry & must pay the consequences for making an idiotic, hateful & hypocritical opinion so public.

Wow, how gracious of him

Here is where I would normally draw a parallel and point out how, if his remarks had been about, say, black people instead, you probably wouldn't be defending him, but given your recent remarks I'm not so sure that would be the case.

This.

Wait bitch. Mike is a HOT mess and Farrah is a CRIMINAL. They cannot support them. Obama supports Queen Snooki though.

His comments were ignorant and he deserves the criticism, but I don't agree with the suspension either. It's such a disingenuous move by the network anyway, clearly just pandering while still trying to protect the cash cow of the franchise.

To be honest, I don't really believe in freedom of speech anyway. Not in a fascist way, I just don't agree with everyone being allowed to say whatever they want, especially if they want to spread messages of hatred.

Personally I could care less about his views about gays - cuz he at least came up with something original about being opposed to it beyond "the bible says so." I'm more bothered at his remarks about Shintos in his whole "y'all need Jesus" nonsense (actually his whole religious argument pissed me off and allows me to ignore "why can't you tolerate his intolerant views" land) and his argument that he never saw racism because those working on the cotton fields were just singing and smiling.

Plus, the joy of the First Amendment is that he does have a right to say what he wants. And A&E has a right to respond how they want. And I have a right to say he's an ignorant prick who needs to get out of the swamp once in a while. My parents are around his age and grew up in the 60s in backwoods podunk northern Alabama and they'd NEVER say anything like that.

How did the issue became Duck Dynasty versus Miley Cyrus?

Do we think this will affect the final sales numbers for Wrapped in Red vs. Duck Dynasty?

He shouldn't have been fired...it's freedom of speech.

OH lord....

All that "freedom of speech" means is that one should not fear prosecution from the State for one's political statements - ie. you get to criticize the government without having to fear criminal sanction or loss of government protection/support. In some limited circumstances, this applies to the employee, employer relationship, which is after all a private one. Generally a boss can;t fire you for expressing a political opinion (ie. I don't like X politician).

A&E employs this man, ie. gives him money, and there is no court that would deny A&E the right to stop giving this man money because he said something that might jeopardize their commercial interests. Are all these nutters going to stop watching this show (and thus deny this group of people their livelihood) to stand up for them...that would be a stupid way of showing support. On the other hand, other people might stop watching other A&E programs because of these comments. As a commercial enterprise, A&E has every right to defend its interest by no longer paying this yahoo.