Is hate speech "free speech"?
One of the issues we discuss in my class on Society and Values is this precise issue about what limits should be set on groups that preach hatred. I begin by citing the story of Angela Davis, originally fired from the Philosophy department at UCLA because she was a member of the Communist Party and at the time our state constitution prohibited Communists from teaching in our public schools (I well remember taking the loyalty oath when I was applying for my teaching credential). Asked whether she felt she had a right to speak about Communism (which she was not doing in her classes) and then whether she thought Nazis had the same right, she answered that the difference was that Nazis wanted to subvert democracy itself and she thought this was not true of Communists such as herself. I then go on to explain that Angela's mentor at UC Davis when she got her PhD was Herbert Marcuse, who had escaped Nazi Germany. Marcuse's key point, if I may oversimplify it, was that the bigot has an advantage in a supposed free market of ideas. The Germans who elected Hitler to power and then supported his regime had a history of anti-Semitism and so were predisposed to accept the Nazi explanation for Germany's problems as being with the Jews.
Marcuse himself wrote about what he called "repressive tolerance," which meant simply that there should be limits on people or groups who aimed at the destruction of democratic ideals, above all human equality. With what happened in Virginia this weekend I think we do have to recognize Marcuse's point. A confluence of "Alt-right" groups would have the right to assemble and speak, according to a Supreme Court ruling dealing with a Nazi march some years back, but that is not the same as saying that a forum has to be provided for them to do so. It also means that the failure of the President to identify "white supremacy" as not just another point of view and inviting everyone to just unite is sending the completely wrong message. David Duke of the KKK already has responded by reminding Mr. Trump that he won because of "white Americans" and not the liberal leftists (and so, presumably, should not even have spoken out as much as he did).
In my classes I try to explain that I respect a wide diversity of beliefs and opinions, except when it comes to Nazis and that because I do have a Jewish wife and son, I have Mexican grandchildren and Indian grandchildren (kids who belong to "mud races" in Nazi doctrine), and if white supremacists had their way our freedom and our very lives would be in jeopardy. This is not a good time for our country, especially when I hear that some in the Republican camp are saying that the 2020 elections might have to be postponed because of all the illegal immigrants who voted and so cost Mr. Trump a clear victory in the popular vote.
No, hate speech should never be seen as having the same protection as "free speech."
Marcuse himself wrote about what he called "repressive tolerance," which meant simply that there should be limits on people or groups who aimed at the destruction of democratic ideals, above all human equality. With what happened in Virginia this weekend I think we do have to recognize Marcuse's point. A confluence of "Alt-right" groups would have the right to assemble and speak, according to a Supreme Court ruling dealing with a Nazi march some years back, but that is not the same as saying that a forum has to be provided for them to do so. It also means that the failure of the President to identify "white supremacy" as not just another point of view and inviting everyone to just unite is sending the completely wrong message. David Duke of the KKK already has responded by reminding Mr. Trump that he won because of "white Americans" and not the liberal leftists (and so, presumably, should not even have spoken out as much as he did).
In my classes I try to explain that I respect a wide diversity of beliefs and opinions, except when it comes to Nazis and that because I do have a Jewish wife and son, I have Mexican grandchildren and Indian grandchildren (kids who belong to "mud races" in Nazi doctrine), and if white supremacists had their way our freedom and our very lives would be in jeopardy. This is not a good time for our country, especially when I hear that some in the Republican camp are saying that the 2020 elections might have to be postponed because of all the illegal immigrants who voted and so cost Mr. Trump a clear victory in the popular vote.
No, hate speech should never be seen as having the same protection as "free speech."
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