“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”
-Barry Goldwater
As far as bumper-sticker slogans go, detestable and reductive as most of them are, “hate speech is free speech” might be my favorite.
Let’s establish at the outset — just so there can be no confusion here for the mouth-breathing “words are violence” people — that physical violence and direct, specific threats of violence are already, and have been for years, illegal in the United States of America. Police authorities have not just the ability but the responsibility to prosecute those crimes.
With that caveat in mind, rather than fixing the state she helped run into the ground along with the rest of the Democrat Party, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has seen fit to “ramp up” online surveillance of “hate speech.”
Via ABC7 (emphasis added):
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday her state has “ramped up” social media surveillance efforts in response to increased antisemitism in the Big Apple.
In a speech, Gov. Hochul cited a rise in pro-Palestine rallies taking place across New York City, such as one over Veterans Day weekend which saw a protestor scale a light post to tear down U.S. and U.N. flags. These incidents, she said, are beginning to impact the way New Yorkers interact with one another online.
“We’re very focused on the data we’re collecting from surveillance efforts, what’s being said on social media platforms,” Gov. Hochul, a Democrat, said. “We have launched an effort to be able to counter some of the negativity and reach out to people when we see hate speech being spoken about on online platforms. Our social media analysis union has ramped up its monitoring of sites to catch incitement to violence, direct threats to others.”
TODAY: New York Governor Kathy Hochul announces the state has started conducting special media "surveillance efforts" to monitor "hate speech." pic.twitter.com/4tzts6kDAV
— Reclaim The Net (@ReclaimTheNetHQ) November 14, 2023
For the record, “reach out to” is a euphemism for siccing the Stasi on New York citizens to intimidate and harass them when their speech hurts her fee-fees.
Related: Rachel Maddow Warns Trump Will ‘Execute’ Corporate Media News Actors If He Wins
Here’s some constitutionally protected hate speech: if there is a hell, I hope Kathy Hochul rots in it along with the rest of the authoritarian trash in government who would make mincemeat of the Constitution just to satisfy whatever constituency happens to be mad at them on any given day.
Hate speech is free speech.
There will be no compromise on this front, as far as I’m concerned. And, to the extent that my opinion matters, I will grant no quarter to the censors of the right, left, or unaffiliated.
If it were up to me, government actors, at the first whiff of censorship, would be brought up on treason charges, duly prosecuted, convicted, and hung at high noon on national television.
But that’s probably why I’m unfit for public office.
It matters not at all what the cause is: combatting “antisemitism” or “Islamophobia” (amorphous terms with, conveniently for the censors, no objective meaning), promoting “public health,” “public safety,” whatever. I do not care what the excuse for censorship is; the Founders didn’t either.
