Sunday, October 29, 2017

Free Speech and hate speech

Now this is really tricky for me, as I am a big advocate of free speech but when a free speech does turns it into hate speech. And I am sure many people will find it hard to distinguish between the two. Let me see if I can differentiate between the two. Although some people believe that anybody can say anything at any time without any blowback or consequences but free speech do have its limits as long time ago Supreme Court case where the U.S. supreme court stated that you cannot yell fire in crowded theater and call it free speech as it will hurt lot of people. The same logic can apply today as words can hurt and incite violence as free speech can turn into hate speech which although some people will keep it at a speech level but there will be some who will turn free speech into a call to commit violence against people he or she may have not liked but was afraid to do anything about it earlier. And this same free speech some people who will grant themselves that privilege do not want to accord the same kind of freedom to people who under the guise of free speech preach violence in their hidden speeches and messages. And this exactly what happened when a march by alt-right white people who have come to Charlottesville to protest the pending removal of Robert Lee statue triggered an equally noisy counter demonstration and the violence that ensued became an unwanted distraction of what the issue was about.

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