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Comment by eeZah7Ux | Hacker News Reader

Freedom of speech is specifically meant to protect citizens from oppressive governments.

It is not meant to help holocaust deniers create a new oppressive government.

When you start to add conditions/exceptions to free speech, it ceases to be free speech. Unpopular speech, however painful/nauseating, is explicitly protected in the U.S. If all speech was agreeable, there'd be no need for free speech laws.

This is false. There are many laws preventing different types of speech. For example death threats. Or sexual harassment. The list goes on.

Yes, targeting individuals by telling them you are going to kill them is not protected by the first amendment lol It has nothing to do with

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

There are many arguments for freedom of speech.

One of the most famous centers around the idea that no one should have the ability to decide what can't be said because that assumes infallability: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill#Freedom_of_sp...

So, yes, from this perspective, freedom of speech exists to protect Holocaust deniers.

The idea that the Holocaust deniers will "create a new oppressive government" seems extremely paranoid to me. I don't think there are very many Holocaust deniers and I also expect that, somewhat unintuitively, banning Holocaust denial would create more neo-nazis. Banning an idea confers a certain amount of glamour.

> The idea that the Holocaust deniers will "create a new oppressive government" seems extremely paranoid to me.

Suuure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally

I find it unlikely that a tiny minority that most Americans find utterly repulsive could "create a new oppressive government". It's like being worried that a UFO cult will take over the country.

After they've spent two years consuming the various conspiracy theories recycled ad nauseam by Maddow et al., they're primed to believe lots of stuff.

The downvotes are telling. Is HN becoming 4chan?

The downvotes are too easy. They should cost karma.

Disagreeing with your statement is not the same as agreeing with holocaust denial.

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