> I’ve never seen it
A Jewish lawyer at the ACLU famously fought for the rights of Nazis to demonstrate in Skokie, Il.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_...
A Jewish lawyer at the ACLU famously fought for the rights of Nazis to demonstrate in Skokie, Il.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_...
My claim is that "free speech absolutism" is more consistently used to protect the rights of those belonging to traditional power structures than the rights of the downtrodden. I am skeptical of it as a viable ideology when there are populations who enjoy the benefit of this ideology who'd waste no time throwing me in prison if they were granted a legislative majority.
This is why I don't find examples of historically oppressed groups (Jewish people) defending the rights of historically powerful groups (white supremacists) to be a compelling argument that free speech absolutism will actually protect my rights if it came to that.
That's rather the point, though. There are many who hold it essential to defend free speech for Nazis, even though Nazis would remove their freedom to speak. If you balk at that thought, then you don't support free speech at all, just speech within your personal boundaries of acceptability.
Hate speech scales more effectively than individual threats of violence. The 1st amendment will do nothing to protect me.
But there are many other laws that prevent people from "enacting mass violence". Speech is not violence. Violence is violence.
Plus, the same laws that would lock-up fascists for inciting violence could be used against BLM and other left-wing groups. The 1st amendment ensures everyone can say what they like. Speech limiting laws can be abused to suit the preferences of whoever is in power.
We already have laws that are abused against BLM and other left-wing groups. I'm not confident in the ability of the state to protect these groups, despite the state claiming that the US stands for certain values. This makes me skeptical of the free speech absolutist claim that the policy helps all groups equally.