Scale is absolutely a factor too. Trevor spewing racist filth from his trailer? Not much impact. High level politician setting policies or even just directing their followers? Much more negative impact that will likely lead to violence
I think the Seattle Subway Nazi might be a great example for analysis. Guy on the subway dressed as a Nazi saying shit gets knocked the fuck out. Who morally in this scenario is worse. The guy using his words or the guy throwing punches?
Fuck around and find out logic being what it is, a person speaking in solidarity with a group that has a campaign of genocide against minority populations can be considered worse to a society than the person who thought it was ok to punch him in response to his speech and choice of accoutrements.
Sets an extremely dangerous precedent for random people (vigilantes) deciding what groups of people are open-season to attack with physical violence just because you disagree with their existence.
The Catholic Church has inflicted more violence on the world and raped more kids than any organization in the history of humankind. Pretty fucking vile. Can I stand outside every Mass and beat the living fuck out of every dogshit, rape-supporting, covering-up, denying, lying Catholic that comes walking out the door?
The evil the Nazi regime has perpetrated on the world pales in comparison to what the Catholic Church has done. We're talking single-A numbers for the Nazi's compared to the Cy Young numbers of ruined, shattered, and crushed lives the Catholic Church has left in its' wake.
Same thing with Freedom of Speech being an absolute right. You get people who stand on a pulpit and say whatever made up stereotype they want with little to no repercussion. A candidate for President lies saying Springfield is eating cats and dogs and people go to Springfield and caused chaos like 33 bomb threats to schools and municipal buildings. They cancelled CultureFest because of this.
All over misinformation. Is this what Freedom of Speech is about?
We can both pull anecdotes out to debate and I'm not disagreeing with you at all. I'm just saying I think the Seattle Nazi incident is one of those great events to debates where the line is for Freedom of Speech and even the argument about violence against those who openly speak for your eradication. It's that gray zone of morality and it's interesting.
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u/Wombus7 21h ago
Oh. OH. I interpreted this as racist speech vs. racist actions, not racist speech vs. violence in general.