Free Speech, hate speech, and conspiracy to commit murder

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: ScepticScot

Humans are material and organic beings. To say people are manipulated by what others say is to say we can manipulate matter with words. It's to believe in sorcery and magic. It's superstition.

Power is the rate at which work is done upon an object. Does a notebook with writting in it have more power than an empty notebook? Could one prove that articulated words has more energy or more power than an unarticulated sound?

It depends on the power a person holds within the social group they are talking to. The old adage "with great power comes great responsibility" holds a lot of weight.

Whilst some with social standing use their powers of speech for great things, others use them for nefarious purposes, of this there can be no doubt. To say speech has no bearing on behaviour is a very, very strange thing to say.

Relevant portion of a relevant speech:

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things,not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.

This speech certainly moved the public to back with all its hearts and minds the project to put a man on the moon, for instance. No small feat at the time.

I could have quoted hate speeches that led to riots in some countries; things I said as a kid to cause someone else to have a fight; a holy book!