Orlando played host to Muslim speaker’s call for death to gays, just weeks ago

[Sand Rat Expat]

89. Well said.

The only speech that should be criminalized is speech that calls for or advocates violence. It's one thing to say "I approve of X" and entirely another to say "You should go out and do X."

One of the beautiful things about free speech is that it allows the marketplace of ideas to flourish, and that offers us the best avenue to getting rid of such deplorable worldviews. It allows those who hold these repugnant views to out themselves and put their ignorance on display, so the rest of us can then point out said ignorance for all to see. Ridiculing the ignorance and narrow thinking behind racism and bigotry will do far more to diminish it than criminalizing it would.

And as you rightly point out, once the power to criminalize speech is established, it opens the door for its abuse. A Republican-controlled Congress could, under these laws, muzzle the opposition. Or just as bad, a Democratic-controlled Congress could do the same. Giving the powers-that-be the further power to silence anything they, or the majority, don't like is a disastrous idea.

Lastly, to paraphrase Tyrion Lannister... when you tear out a man's tongue, you're not proving him wrong, you're only telling the world you fear what he has to say.