I do.
Why?
Because I've noticed that if people don't have the release valve of speech, they feel persecuted and justified in being violent. And I prefer speech over violence. Anyone with sense ought to prefer speech to violence.
When we have people on the left claiming "free speech IS violence" or that people should be jailed for not using our pronouns, where does that eventually lead? Do you reckon it leads to people getting along better? More love, less hate?
Here's a summation of the problem:
We won't end hate by silencing people. We won't get respect from disrespectful people by persecuting them. They will feel justified in their bigotry. Eventually they will feel like victims, and a when a person feels enough of a victim, he or she can feel justified in lashing out. Some of the greatest crimes against humanity were perpetrated by people who perceived themselves as victims. This applies to both the far left AND the far right. BOTH at this point in time are now perceiving themselves as victims of bigotry and persecution. A universal rule of thumb when dealing with humans and their psychology is that if you try to get something - respect, love, acceptance - by force, you will get nothing but force in return. The same is happening here.
And currently it's the "tolerant left" who have more means to silence the far right. They have the means to disrupt free speech events, they have the backing of the press when they want to defame, denounce or smear someone as far right, they have the backing of established anti-discrimination laws in many cases. Not all, but many. They are in the better position right now. However the more they refuse to allow their ideological opponents an outlet, the more are drawn to the far right. The allure of the forbidden and the taboo, for one thing. For another, people who are fed up of being called bigots even when they're not. People who are aware of the sudden increasing pressure on white people to feel guilty for things their great-great-grandfathers did. All reasons I've heard lately for why people feel pushed away from the left.
Being closer to the left myself I find it self-defeating to create more of this, and I find it especially self-defeating to try to force acceptance of people like me on people in the far right. They will
never accept me by force. Only by meeting them on a level playing field and giving them their say can you even hope for it. And you may not get it. But you are assured to get nothing but
abject hatred if you make them victims of your persecution.
This seems to be beyond many people on the left these days, and I'm increasingly beginning to think it's because actual liberalism, true classical liberalism, has gone out the window among us. A real liberal accepts there is a point of view he may not like, he may not want to hear, but he ought to defend to the death someone's right to have it. For simple reason that today's tolerance may be tomorrow's tyrant. And without your free speech, you have NO way of protecting yourself from tomorrow's tyrant without resorting to violence. SO DON'T THROW IT AWAY. The freedom to express ideas and the constant expression of wholesome ideas is the only steadfast defense against Nazism and real bigotry. Unless of course we want a repeat of some of the worst parts of the last century. The reason the bigotry is rising - on both sides - has a lot to do with the fact we are not doing this and we are not respecting the right of others to have their views. We are all too ready to scream in their faces, shut them down, disrupt and persecute.
Well if we keep on doing it we'll get what's coming to us. A state without freedom. And the next day who knows. Bloodshed not a distant possibility.
