re: "Artists and Writers Warn of an ‘Intolerant Climate.’ Reaction Is Swift." (The New York Times, July 9, 2020)
Good to see some of our most respected artists and intellectuals taking a clear stand for free speech against the assault from those who would, sincerely moved by the best of intentions, undermine an essential foundation of any just, democratic, morally healthy society.
Too many who think themselves supporters of free speech draw a line that coincides remarkably with what they themselves personally deem acceptable and what they deem beyond the pale. But the true test of your commitment to free speech is the length of the list of unacceptable speech, vile ideas, absurd claims, idiocy, outright filth, the sickest, most hateful garbage and the like that you insist be protected from suppression by the state, however well-intentioned that suppression.
If you cannot point to repugnant filth that you think the law must protect from suppression by the state, then you do not support free speech; you are not a liberal in the great tradition of John Stuart Mill, and the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
There are grounds for restricting what may legally be expressed, but merely being truly hateful is not among those grounds in a just society, a society that respects the individuals who each contribute to making that society, who are equally persons, or apparently not equally as the suppressors assume when they seek to silence their voices to "protect" others, until those others become me and you.
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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to the The New York Times article.
It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/arts/harpers-letter.html#commentsContainer&permid=108018802:108018802
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