DSMatticus wrote:
I am uncomfortable with a trend in certain parts of the left towards the distrust of free speech, but that trend is happening because fucking idiots who say things like... well, what you're saying... refuse to parse out any of the nuances and just declare that minorities have no right to not have their government publicly sanction groups that want to murder them, or not be hounded down and have obscenities shouted at them - because slippery slope! Except the slope isn't very fucking slippery, and Republicans are already attempting to chill protest mostly just by making it legal to run over protesters (in all but name).
It isn't a slippery slope. It isn't a slope at all. It's a goddamn flat plane.
The government will use its powers against minorities. There's no if or maybe there. They will. They have in the past, they continue to do so today. The government will ignore crimes against minorities. They have in the past, they continue to do so.
Trusting the government to protect the rights of minorities is like trusting foxes to protect the rights of hens.
When Trump pushes his "both sides" narrative, do you think that means that he's going to enforce hate speech laws fairly and impartially? Because that's not what I'm getting from the "Both Sides" narrative, personally.
In 1968, Black Panther national treasurer Bobby Hutton was assassinated by the Oakland Police department.
It's 50 years later and we still don't live in a country where the police refrain from murdering black people who get too uppity. And we still don't live in a country where the police don't get away with it.
The KKK is a joke. The Westboro Baptist Church is a joke. They do horrible things, but they have no power. Even in the age of the internet their political influence is nonexistent.
The police, on the other hand, are not a joke. Trump isn't a joke, either, though he acts like one. These people people with real power who are capable is exercising that power in ways that do tremendous harm and who have shown illness to use that power against people who criticism them.
People who do things that the government agrees with don't get prosecuted. An alt-right friendly government is not going to use hate speech laws against the alt right, it just isn't. If it uses them at all it will use them to target people who disagree with them.
We already live in a world where police respond to left-wing protests with mass arrests. I'd rather not give them more ammo.