> Yes, it is important, but we defend it for a reason. Because it protects the weak. Is that why we defend it? I strongly disagree with this idea. There is a l

> Yes, it is important, but we defend it for a reason. Because it protects the weak. Is that why we defend it? I strongly disagree with this idea. There is a lot of distasteful speech that I think we should defend, and much of it doesn't concern disenfranchised or weak groups. I find it hard to articulate an exact reason for defending free speech. But a large part of it to me is that we grant an _enormous_ amount of power to whoever we let define what ideas and speech is allowed, and disallowed. In an ideal world, you would let free speech be the absolute rule; since truly distasteful things would be seen as such and just be noise. Pragmatically though, free speech often has real consequences, and in some case real, actual victims and that must be balanced. But understand that if you defend free speech in any venue, you have to accept some level of speech you find distasteful. I think you get to draw the line at showing actual harm or damage to other people; and that harm needs to be more than "It hurt my feelings".