It's been a crazy week and i've engaged in many heated discussions about the events of Charlottesville. I have to admit that i've been greatly conflicted about my anti-racist feelings and my support of free speech. I flirted dangerously close in many discussions to promoting the shutdown of speech for white supremacist groups. I saw them as threats, conveyers of hate speech and given their history which has resulted in millions of deaths I was ok with suppressing their speech and shutting down their causes by whatever means necessary. But, I've had a change of heart.
I think we can be smarter than that and not empower these assholes to strip us of our freedoms. It is a slippery slope once you start suppressing speech. We have legal censorship in a variety of areas which i'm fine with, but shutting down groups from holding rallies, having websites and protesting is only going to lead to bad things. Note that I in no way support any provocation of violence or destruction resulting from rallies or protests. If that happens then shut them down immediately and make arrests.
I would promote fighting these douchebags by ignoring them and minimizing them in a SMART way. Don't lower yourself to fight with them and fuel their cause. Take away their statues and flags that empower them in public forums and show them that our communities outright reject their hateful views. Or construct monuments and statues of civil rights leaders next to the confederate statues and tell the story about how we prevailed and fought agains their hate, and WE WON. Ignore their rallies and don't give them the exposure or attention that they crave. Speak louder and stronger for equality.
I still think that the Presidents comments that minimized the ugliness of the Nazi's and White Supremacists were wildly inappropriate. He tried to spread the blame to the left for the anti-protests and it deluded his message of condemnation that should have been crystal clear in opposition of the hate groups. He should have spread the message in a better way to fight against it. I don't want to relitigate Trumps actions in this OP but I did want to share my change of opinion and open up a discussion about productive ways to move forward that combats the hate and preserves our right of free speech.
Your message
only demonstrates how you're short-sighted, biased and a hypocrite.
Wow, you make some really interesting points... let me think about that brilliant argument and get back to you with a response in a bit
What, I'm supposed to explain how you're FUCKED in the head and you'll get it? Here's a clue shithead.
How the FUCK did you conclude white supremacists should be shut down and their rights taken away, but the same doesn't apply to the extreme left, who are FAR more radical & dangerous?
How the FUCK did you associate confederate history with white supremacists today?
How the FUCK did you come to excuse liberals from re-writing destroying history, never mind our Constitution?
How the FUCK did you conclude liberals dictate what monuments exist, what names exist, and what books are available?
How the FUCK are you pathetically blind to critical thought and history, that you can't calculate how the actions you're advocating for impact our world tomorrow?
Liberals
WILL NOT dictate our monuments, our Constitution, our thoughts, our words or anything else they're fucked in the head to consider. YOU advocate authoritarian and a destruction of the country herself. This has all been documented beforehand. Read my signature for a great example, and George Orwell documented the same. Turns out he wrote about liberals, quite clearly.