The “Battle of Berkeley” continues to roll across American
campuses. Hundreds of self-described anti-fascist protesters and supporters of
President Donald Trump clashed in Berkeley on tax day. The “pro-free speech rally” by a
group of Trump supporters ended with 13 arrests and a dozen people suffering
the effects of pepper spray. According to an anti-Trump protester, the
“protest” was “to make Nazis afraid” and the protester followed up by saying
that “the ideology that they propose puts public citizens at risk.”
The Left thinks because the Right is in control, that is the
Senate, the House, the Presidency, and now the Supreme Court everything that
comes out of Washington including its supporters are Nazis and fascists and we
know that fascists spew “hate speech.” But the problem is there is no such thing
as “hate speech,” and “hate speech” isn’t the same thing as “fighting words” (I
discuss this further down in the post).
The Left’s definition of “hate speech” is espousing an idea or
opinion which the Left disagrees with. As long as what you have to say is along
the lines of what the Left practices, then it’s okay. “Hate speech” usually offends
a Liberal to such a point (triggered) in which they go frantically searching
for a safe space.
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Salman Rushdie once said that “Nobody has the right to not
be offended.” He goes on to say “that right doesn't exist in any declaration I
have ever read.” Rushdie proclaims that “If you are offended it is your
problem.” So this begs the question, “Where does free speech stop and hate
speech begin?”
“Nobody has the right to not be offended.”
But if “hate speech” really exists then there a simple
solution to it. If it’s on the television, turn the t.v. off. If there is “hate
speech” in a movie then don’t watch the movie. If there is a lecture which
“triggers” you then don’t go to the lecture. It’s just that simple . . . no
riots are necessary.
The First Amendment doesn’t mention anything about “hate
speech,” I guess it was because in the 18th century it wasn’t an
issue. The Founding Fathers and the settlers of the united States were busy
building a nation. There was no difference between free speech and hate speech
then just as there is no difference today; the Bill of Rights protects all
speech, whether you agree with it or not.
“Fighting words” do not equate “hate speech” either. These
are two completely different issues. The United States Supreme Court defined
“fighting words” as “a face-to-face insult directed at a specific person for
the purpose of provoking a fight.”
The city of St. Paul has an ordinance called the
Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance. Sometime during the 90s, a white teenager
burned a home-made cross in the front yard of a black family. The city decided
to make the teen an example of its Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance to punish the
teenager.
The case, R.A.V.
v. City of St. Paul (1992) made it all the way to the Supreme Court
in which the ordinance was ruled unconstitutional. Justice Antonin Scalia
explained that the Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance only applies to “fighting
words that insult, or provoke violence, on the basis of race, color, creed,
religion or gender." Scalia goes on with, “displays no matter how abusive,
vicious, or severe, are permissible unless they are addressed to one of the
specified disfavored topics.”
I want to say that we all know that incitement isn’t hate
speech either. Shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater isn’t a form of free
speech because they’re crimes. It’s illegal to make a specific threat against a
person and it’s illegal to incite a riot. With this being the case, Berkeley
has been guilty at least twice of practicing actions which were
unconstitutional by inciting.
The rioters at Berkeley and other college campuses are the
definition of what fascism is. Using violence to shut the opposition down
because the Left disagrees with what Trump-supporters (or anybody for that matter)
have to say is a tactic used by fascists. The sad part of it is that the Left
doesn’t even recognize that they are the fascists.
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