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A comment on ACLU of California Statement: White Supremacist Violence Is Not Free Speech. Parent comment

Re:ACLU of California Statement: White Supremacist Violence ... by shpongled on Thursday August 17, 2017 @03:32AM (#15034509)
The Supreme Court DID rule on this very issue, back in 1977 [1], where the ACLU defended the American Nazi Party's right to march through a primarily Jewish neighborhood. The Court ruled that the Nazi uniform and swastika are not "fighting words".

Regardless - I've always said that free speech is allowing speech that we hate or disagree with. Once we started banning speech that is "offensive", we have started down a path of legal and social precedence that we will never be able to recover from.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_Am...

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Re:ACLU of California Statement: White Supremacist Violence ... by 2bitencryption on Thursday August 17, 2017 @03:57AM (#15034629)
I've always liked how the Yale professor put it when confronted by a student in that controversy over censoring Halloween constumes:

"I stand behind free speech, yes I do."

"Even when it's offensive?"

"Even when it's offensive -- ESPECIALLY when it's offensive."

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