After the appalling murder of Charlie Kirk last week, many mourned, some did not and a few even celebrated.
Kirk aroused strong emotions.
Celebrating murder is extremely distasteful, but where free speech is valued, and in the case of the USA, protected by the constitution, disapproval is as far as the reaction should go.
Yet, apparently, people are losing their jobs because of how they have reacted to the murder, yesterday’s suspension of late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel being just the latest example.
According to NBC News, “Former adviser to President Donald Trump and right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon called for mass arrests and a crackdown on universities, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed staff to identify and discipline service members who mocked or condoned Kirk’s killing.”
Such talk is the stuff of witch hunts and stirs memories of the worst excesses of the McCarthy era.
All speech, unless it incites violence or is slanderous or, as is the case in some countries, promotes holocaust denialism, should be protected.
To quote author Evelyn Beatrice Hall, when summarising the views of French philosopher Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
The first amendment to the US Constitution reads, in part, “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.”
Hate speech, however distressing, is not excluded.
Kirk himself made that point last year, when he wrote: “Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech, and ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free.”
We are entering extremely dangerous territory when governments start to go after people on the basis of what they say.
As a society, our default position should be one of always erring on the side of free speech, and as publishers, we should always resist any rollback of first amendment protections… even if we aren’t based in the USA.
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