(07-25-2021, 03:04 AM)Black Aeronaut Wrote: There's a reason why they come down so hard on Neonazi rhetoric in Germany. They educate their children quite well on the events that led up to WWII. And as such, they feel there's no excuse for falling into the same trap all over again. It's like saying, "We have explained with excruciating detail why we do not like Nazis. Nazis are bad. Do not be or even pretend to be a Nazi."
Whereas here in the USA, we've allowed the rhetoric to flow, provided, "Fine, so long as you don't promote violence in public forums."
Trouble is, they take that kind of talk into private forums where no one is likely to report them for calling for violent acts. You can see how this undermines the intent of the First Amendment - where people are not to be penalized for voicing their opinions, but should not be exempted from the consequences.
The Founding Fathers vastly underestimated the harm toxic ideas can do. Sure, you can claim, "But I don't think we should hurt people." But that's a load of bull if the core of your message is "Ethnicity X is better than Ethnicity Y." The only logical outcome for that line of thinking is harm, and on a grand scale at that.
I've always been an advocate for the concept the best cure for horrible ideas is sunlight, not locking it in a dark room and pretending it does not exist. If you try to drive all forms of potentially harmful speech underground, you just give it a victim complex and make it more likely more will be planned in private that crosses the line from "hideous opinion" to "horrific crime". Saying "I think group X is bad" (my favorite of late is how groups like BLM associate being white with being inherently evil and thus all white people deserve contempt) is noxious, but absent a criminal intent to cause harm to said group, it's a terrible opinion.
When it crosses the the line is when there is intent to harm with a time, place, target, and method of harm clearly identified. Without those key elements elevating terrible speech to criminal speech, it's just horrific opinion. Horrific opinion, while vile, should never be made illegal. Those who spew it should be allowed to hang themselves with their own rope if their rhetoric escalates to criminal speech, which is nigh always does, and I'd rather the bigots and potential terrorists be caught while peaceful and stupid enough to say too much than be driven underground and caught only after executing an intent to cause harm that could not be detected because they were forced to remain quiet in public about it.
So while allowing terrible opinions is allowing some real gutter trash to have a voice, at least so long as it goes no further, let them vent, only punish those who cross the line into speech of actual criminal import. All bad ideas wither and die in the face of apathy and wilt in the sunlight of public discourse naturally, but if they driven into the darkness, they are like mushroom colonies and adapt well, which is worse in the long run.