which are totally necessary for a free state.
Over the years I have gotten a lot of flak for sticking up for the basic rights of some pretty unsavory people to speak out.
I really got lambasted a couple of times for sticking up for some totally racist groups such as the Skinheads and the Klan. Another time I got a quiet chiding from some racist jerk for saying that the Black Panthers has a right to peacefully protest.
"But what about hate speech?"
What about it? You can hate anyone you want and as an added bonus, for any reason you want, as stupid as it may be. Hate speech is protected as it should be.
For that matter just about any kind of speech is legal. Even NAMBLA has a right to speak out. (Look cross-eyed at one single kid and it's jail, as is should be.)
Nowadays it seems that a LOT of people don't understand how things are supposed to work for any number of reasons. When I went to school you had to pass a civics class called 'Problems of Democracy' to graduate. What? You had to pass it in order to graduate?
Yup. I know a guy that flunked it and he did not graduate with his class.
Also you have to remember that a lot of people think it's just fine if the speech that's banned is the speech they don't agree with. It's the attitude of imbeciles because by permitting the powers that be to censor someone else-anyone- and you are giving them the power to censor them a little further on down the road.
As an old man I'm actually pround that I have stood up and defended everyone and not just my own side of things. By doing so it insured me that I could say what I feel is right.
I remember the look I got when some Skinhead/Nazi/or whatever the hell he was thanked me for supporting them.
"I'm not supporting you," I shot back. "I'm supporting your right to speak out. Frankly I wish the whole push of you would simply go away." Of course he really looked at me confused when I told him I was a Jew or some damned thing.
An awful lot of people are giving their rights away by thinking it's OK to stifle someone they don't agree with. The concept of an open forum is entirely alien to them.
Dumbasses.
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