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From the Vox:
Many American pundits seem to firmly believe that the country stands at a precipice in which young, left-wing college students and recent graduates are the leading edge of a rising tide of illiberalism that comes in the form of “political correctness” and poses a clear and present danger to free speech and rational discourse.
[...] The alarm about student protesters, in other words, though not always mistaken about particular cases, is generally grounded in a completely mistaken view of the big-picture state of American society and public opinion, both on and off campus.
[...] Since the 1970s, the General Social Survey has posed a question about whether five hypothetical speakers should be allowed to give a speech in your community — a communist, a homosexual, an opponent of all religion, a racist, and a person who favors replacing the elected government with a military coup.
Justin Murphy of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom aggregated trend data about all five kinds of speakers and found that public support for free expression has been generally rising
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @03:53AM (2 children)
There had never been nor should there ever be anything requiring people to tolerate intolerance.
But we do have a law that says you cannot prohibit intolerant speech, at least in the U.S. And it is paramount that that law remains in force, exactly as written!, whether you like it or not. Censorship is evil, always. That is one of those things in this universe that just happens to be absolute, and is one thing that should never, ever be tolerated. All opinions to the contrary should be simply ignored, not given a moment's thought. Our goal should be to create an internet that cannot be controlled in the server/client fashion that cripples it today. Something where anybody can serve up whatever they want, and the people that don't like it can fuck off. Making censorship impossible would be a wonderful thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @02:03PM (1 child)
There is no such law on the books that says that we have to tolerate any sort of speech. We're perfectly free to boo at the speaker so loudly that they can't be heard, or to have nothing to do with them if we don't like what they're saying. Really, the closest thing to what you're saying is that the government can't throw those people in prison or prevent them equal access to government support.
But, that falls very far short of what you're suggesting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @05:51PM
We're perfectly free to boo at the speaker so loudly that they can't be heard
No, you have no right to keep other people from hearing what is said, none at all. In regards to speech, you only have the right to turn your back and/or respond with your own speech, and the others do have a right to hear. You are claiming that they don't, so, you are obviously wrong. You have no right to intrude on them any more than they do on you. The only legitimate restriction on speech is the decibel level, nothing else, not the tone, not the content, nothing. So turn your back, throw all the verbal insults you want, but do not interfere...