I know we’re inundated with ‘raising awareness’ days these days when we’re supposed to wear a bracelet or grow facial hair, but I’ve got a great idea for a new one – Hate Speech Day.
It occurred to me while reading this Atlantic piece about gay rights by Jonathan Rauch in which the author came out with a brilliant sentence explaining how liberal societies should work.
‘The best society for minorities is not the society that protects minorities from speech but the one that protects speech from minorities (and from majorities, too).’
Exactement! The best route towards maximum freedom, peace and happiness is through open debate, and that requires that all theories be tested, even the hateful ones.
America has a tremendous capacity for optimism and a belief in redemption and freedom, which is why the Civil Rights movement could emerge there, despite deep-seated racial animosity, and why gay liberation followed.
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