Protect free speech; reject hate speech
Filling the public square with hateful rhetoric is an attempt to dominate it, not an attempt to open it to all.
Dear friends:
Too many events in recent days and weeks prompt the question: Do we have to allow hate speech to thrive in order to uphold free speech?
For me, the answer is an unequivocal no. Freedom of speech, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights, prohibits the government from punishing people for criticizing it, from interfering in peaceful protests, and from establishing a single, legally enforced narrative that privileges the powerful.
There is no constitutional protection for direct threats of violence. There is no constitutional or legal requirement for private citizens to accept hateful speech in their homes, or for private business owners to allow hateful speech in their places of business.
And there is no obligation for private businesses, or public organizations, to provide platforms for hateful speech. Hateful speech, the dehumanization of specific groups, is in fact a means of quashing free speech for all. Filling the public square with hateful rhetoric is an attempt to dominate it, not an attempt to open it to all.
We are obligated to drown out hateful speech with words and actions of inclusion, respect, and love. Protecting free speech means clearly and decisively rejecting the attempt to dominate the public square with messages of violence, hate, and dehumanization.
So if would-be leaders, or celebrities, find publicity for their words of hate, of attack on specific identity groups, for their compliments aimed at dictators and genocide orchestrators, our response is clear: remove our support for those leaders and celebrities, and those who provide the platforms for their poison. Reiterate, loudly and repeatedly, our support for the worth and value of all humans.
The dehumanization of any group puts us all at risk. Dehumanization of a scapegoated group is an essential step in establishing authoritarianism. Our constitutional principles, our Bill of Rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all require us to contain, undermine, and out-shout the hateful words that advance dehumanization.
And when a past president hosts speakers of anti-Semitic rhetoric, when a billionaire owner of a social media platform allows hate speech to thrive, and when other so-called leaders do not immediately and unequivocally denounce these events, we must turn away from them, loudly and openly, in order to protect freedom for all.
Thank you for your company in this important work. Be safe and well.