We Need Free Speech to Fight the Right
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- Published on Monday, 19 June 2017 22:45
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1435 .... June 20, 2017
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We Need Free Speech to Fight the Right
Nikki Williams
"Free Speech or die, Portland. You got no safe space. This is America. Get out if you don't like free speech." Those were the chilling words of anti-Muslim terrorist Jeremy Christian at his arraignment for stabbing three people who tried to stand up to his harassment of two women of color, one of them wearing a hijab, on a light rail train in Portland, Oregon.
Christian was responding to the far right's current cynical campaign in defense of what it calls "free speech" -- which to the bigots means the freedom to harass, intimidate and assault oppressed people with no opposition.
In a Facebook event in support of Christian that was quickly deleted,... white nationalists claimed that in killing two people and seriously injuring a third, Christian was defending his right to free speech from the men who tried to stop him from verbally assaulting two high school girls with his bigoted rant.
In a less overt call to violently protect hate speech at the alt-right's June 4 "Trump Free Speech" rally, Kyle Chapman -- also known as "Based Stickman" -- encouraged members of the crowd to "protect people with conservative ideology from being systematically oppressed."
And, of course, these right-wingers also unapologetically support the many First Amendment violations committed by police. There were a multitude of "Blue Lives Matter" flags at the right's June 4 rally -- and the right-wingers cheered when police used excessive force to shut down the Antifa counterprotest. When the rights of 300 counterprotesters were violated by police who kettled them on a city block and took pictures of their IDs, these so-called champions of "freedom" had nothing to say.