Posted on 01/31/2014 5:53:39 AM PST by PaulCruz2016
New studies show that unbridled hateful speech can cause emotional harm. Is it time for the United States to follow other democracies and impose limits on what Neo-Nazis and other haters say?
Over the past several weeks, free speech has gotten costlier—at least in France and Israel.
In France, Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala, an anti-Semitic stand-up comic infamous for popularizing the quenelle, an inverted Nazi salute, was banned from performing in two cities. M’Bala M’Bala has been repeatedly fined for hate speech, and this was not the first time his act was perceived as a threat to public order.
Meanwhile, Israel’s parliament is soon to pass a bill outlawing the word Nazi for non-educational purposes. Indeed, any slur against another that invokes the Third Reich could land the speaker in jail for six months with a fine of $29,000. The Israelis are concerned about both the rise of anti-Semitism globally, and the trivialization of the Holocaust—even locally.
To Americans, these actions in France and Israel seem positively undemocratic. The First Amendment would never prohibit the quenelle, regardless of its symbolic meaning. And any lover of “Seinfeld” would regard banning the “Soup Nazi” episode as scandalously un-American. After all, in 1977 a federal court upheld the right of neo-Nazis to goose-step right through the town of Skokie, Illinois, which had a disproportionately large number of Holocaust survivors as residents. And more recently, the Supreme Court upheld the right of a church group opposed to gays serving in the military to picket the funeral of a dead marine with signs that read, “God Hates Fags.”
While what is happening in France and Israel is wholly foreign to Americans, perhaps it’s time to consider whether these and other countries may be right. Perhaps America’s fixation on free speech has gone too far.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Who but a National Socialist of some description could even ask that question?
I hope everyone here realizes that there are lunatics on the left who regard the Knights of Columbus as a “hate group” because they forthrightly defend the Latin Church’s understanding of Christian sexual morality, and regard FreeRepublic.com as a “hate site”, I suppose because the preponderance of opinion here also supports traditional Christian sexual morality and has a take on race issues consonant with Dr. King’s Christian humanism (judging people by the content of their character) and opposed to the new-issue version of “anti-racism” that’s based on applying a Nietzschean transvaluation of values to the old template of white racism.
Exactly. But that is exactly what these guys are trying to do. "Oh XYZ is obviously just tooo hateful to allow..." I may not like nor agree with them...heck I may be repulsed by them. But I stand behind their right to march in jackboots and white sheets or designer shoes and boas. ;-)
It is good we have a First amendment, and that people use it, Thane. Why you may ask? Because when the shtf, we will know who to shoot first.
5.56mm
Anyone tempted to agree with banning the Left's definition of "hate speech" hasn't thought it through.
Telling the truth is often "hurtful," especially when it is most necessary and needed.
It's the most slippery slope I can imagine, and one reason this silly idea is very specifically forbidden by the First Amendment.
The right of free speech exists solely for offensive speech. Popular speech doesn’t need protection.
How about the democratic convention?
Democrat Party, because there's nothing democratic about it.
No, it doesn't. But when we are fighting the 'intellectuals', we don't want to give them ammo for their ad hominem attacks.
If a state restricts the rights of one group, it will soon restrict the rights of another group and another, repeat until the state restricts the rights of all groups.
Everyone should have Free Speech. Especially, if LIBs/DIMs have Free Speech, everyone with any view should have Free Speech.
As long as Neo-Communists (like our current POTUS) continue to have free speech, then the answer is Yes.
What is funny this professor is on the faculty of Fordham University. Fordham is a Jesuit University. If this guys ideas became law the Left, of which I am sure the prof is a part of, would use the “hurt feelings” restriction to shut up the Catholic Church on issue like abortion and homosexuals.
Simple constitutional answer is YES unless you are giving away shipping times during war or yelling fire in a crowded theater
The big problem is not hate but trivialization. Americans on the left and the right need to exercise self-restraint with the Nazi name-calling. They are offensive to those whose families were victimized. I see it on this site and elsewhere every day. Yes, that includes on Seinfeld. No laws necessary, just common decency.
Do they even teach about the Nazis in school anymore...Seems to me the only thing they talk about regarding the war is our bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the internment of Japanese on the West Coast.
So now, basically a “Nazi” is someone who disagrees with a Liberal.
Would the hate-filled black and latino racists be included in this purposed free speech ban?
The placing of Churban 'Europa' as the central event of Jewish history has got to stop. When is the last time anyone advocated a law against blasphemy (which is actually forbidden by both Torah and Noachide law)?
The problem with saying “sure, ban neo-nazi speech” is that many liberals consider conservatives neo-nazi - radical haters who want minorities and women and LGBTA dead.
Hence the orchestrated attacks on conservative Facebook pages to get them removed as “hate speech”, IRS trying to shut down Tea Party groups, liberals who deny conservatives the right to speak at public forums because their mere existence of a contrary idea is not debate but hate.
The irony is that Democrats are the fascists they accuse Republicans of being.
Look what just happened North of the Border to “Free Dominion.”
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