Unfree Speech Invites Free Totalitarianism
I appreciated a letter in the WSJ by Norman Gersman, and was reminded of my own support, in my early teens, for the Nazis to march in Skokie.
I grew up Jewish and endured a good bit of kicking around (sometimes literally) from Jew-haters while growing up in a Detroit suburb. But Gersman is absolutely right on where speech-squashing can lead:
The April 21 letter by Brandeis student Jack Zev Hait in defense of barring Ayaan Hirsi Ali from speaking is truly disappointing. In the winter of 1966/67 the founder of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell, was invited to speak at my college, SUNY at Oswego. Despite the fact that Rockwell's "sentiment" was extremely hurtful to many students, he was, of course, allowed to speak. My generation believed, and I hope still believes, in free speech as a basic premise of our liberty. Today's youth who bar free speech invite totalitarianism.Norman Gersman
Great Neck, N.Y.
I think anyone has a right to say what they want.
I don't think they have a right to use my "press" to do it. So if someone were to come on to my blog and post "hate" speech without a good context (i.e. debating gay marriage) I feel I have every right to delete it.
If someone wants to do it on their own I don't think an ISP has a right to refuse to host their website. Just like a Jewish printer shouldn't really refuse to print a NAZI pamphlet.
It's a fine line though. The other half of the argument is forcing someone to work on something they find objectionable such as the baker or photographer and a gay wedding.
Jim P. at April 26, 2014 5:17 AM
I think anyone has a right to speak (i.e. it should not be illegal), but that people who hold morally abhorrent views should be publicly shamed and disrespected, not handed a podium and treated as important. Anti-Semites have enough 'free speech outlets' already (e.g. on the internet), I think giving invites for such people to speak is abhorrent (would we invite Hitler to speak at universities if he were still alive today? Would we invite pro-slavery advocates?) ... let's rather hand the podium to people who have something positive and useful to contribute to the world. Sociopaths already dominate our podiums (sp?) as it is.
Lobster at April 26, 2014 7:08 AM
I too found the call for barring Ayaan Hirsi Ali offensive. Free speech sometimes is.
Far more disturbing was the actual banning, which shows a real problem of support for views that should be dismissed. Calling for suppression of speech is one thing, succeeding in suppression is far worse.
John A at April 26, 2014 9:27 AM
Deer Norman,
Many of the administrators at colleges and universities are your age, and should remember that era.
They are leading the charge to run roughshod over speech rights on campuses. They've gone from sit-ins at the dean's office to being the dean.
I R A Darth Aggie at April 28, 2014 6:21 AM
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