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> Is free speech really so important that abusers and trolls are given a free pass to continue their work, so long as they constrain it to the realm of speech?
by kaba0 3y ago
> Is free speech really so important that abusers and trolls are given a free pass to continue their work, so long as they constrain it to the realm of speech?
Especially when said speech is often followed up by action by someone else.
- mcv 3y agoExactly. Free speech has always had limits. Threats are speech, yet illegal, for good reason. Same goes for blackmail, slander, and probably more. I think it makes a lot of sense to treat speech that riles people up against a specific, vulnerable demographic, in a similar way. Because we've seen what it can lead to, and we still occasionally see people act on it today. To claim that they were acting on their own and not at all influenced by the environment of hate speech around them, would be dishonest and blind. Unfortunately the edges between such hate speech and legitimate insult can be blurry, and maybe we should make that distinction more clear.