The war against Hate and Free speech

Note: I hope this is in the appropriate place. lol. Let me start by saying that it is incredibly late here, however I have not been able to sleep because my mind has been racing over this topic. That being said, I hope my point comes across clear :-)

After reading some topics regarding the Westboro Baptist Church, i've found many people believe the supreme court should have stopped them from spreading their hate. This made me think. Before I begin, let me just say that I would say im a very nice person, and I genuinely do not hate many people or things. Also, I in no way agree with or support the WBC's actions and I do feel that things such as funerals should be off limits from protests, funerals are hard enough.

I want to talk about hate. Hate is one of the strongest human emotions. It is impossible to avoid. Everyone feels hate towards something or someone at a point in their life. How can anyone think it's a good idea for the government to start prohibiting one of the most common emotions that, in a way, makes us who we are. It may be seen as wrong to hate, but it is still unavoidable. simply because you feel it is wrong does not mean that the law needs to prohibit it.. For example, the WBC thrives on hate. They go from protest to protest, spreading their message of intolerance and bigotry. Now, their message may be incredibly vicious, but simply because it is hateful does not mean they do not have the right to say it.

More and more people think that the government needs to pass laws to protect people from messages like that of the Westboro Baptist Church. I say that it's a slippery slope. Hate crime laws can be extended to cover anything, and before you know it we will be living in a society where everything we say is closely monitored and limited. If the government was to silence WBC, we would be opening the door for them to completely overturn our most important right, the right to free speech.

Let me tell you a little about me. I'm a 20 year old American guy who lives in southern VA. I work by day and go to class at night. My entire life i've felt that I was on the outside looking in. I'm shy, mature, and sometimes far too logical. I have known hate most of my teenage/adult life. I'm white, "middle class," and have an amazing family. But it also just so happens that i'm homosexual. Now please do not make this into a debate about whether or not its a choice, we can argue till we are blue in the face and neither of us will change our minds. My point is that ever since I came out at 13, i've had to deal with people hating me for something I never asked for. I have known of the WBC for many years, and have witnessed their cruelty first hand. As much as I disagree with their message, I completely support their right to say it.

Freedom of Speech is so incredibly important. It's bad enough that the government censors us as much as they do. We can not allow the government to interfere in this any further. Anyone who feels that someone should not be allowed to speak freely needs to either move somewhere else or learn to ignore it. Growing up, I was always told "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." The only reason words have power is because people give them power, and the more power you give to words the more you are allowing yourself to be hurt. It's sad to see how many grown men and women throw temper tantrums just because someone said something mean to them. What ever happened to turning the other cheek and not giving in to hate? The more people give in to hate, the more politically correct our society will become and before you know it, it won't just be hate speech that is prohibited.

What if the situation was reversed? What if instead of the WBC being the bad guy, it was switched and you're beliefs were in the cross hairs? How would you feel if you were told to keep your values to yourself? That you aren't allowed to spread your message to others simply because it is too abrasive for some? Christians, what if you were told to completely stop "recruiting" because your message is found too hateful? It just so happens that in the case of the westboro baptist church, the majority of Americans are offended by them, so very few people see a problem with shutting them up.

I guess my point is this: Hate isn't a bad thing. Without hatred, there would be no love. Overcoming hate helps us grow as an individual. When we give in to hate, that is when it becomes a bad thing. That is when violence occurs. Prohibiting people from speaking their mind simply because it is deemed hateful will only escalate the problem while violating one of the most fundamental laws of our land. We all feel like are beliefs are what's right. Even though we may disagree on many things, the truth is my beliefs are no better than yours, and your beliefs are no better than anyone else's, We need to learn to accept hatred for what it is, one part of the whole. Hatred is an emotion, no less important than happiness, love, sadness, ect. What's important is not letting those emotions cloud your judgment.

The only reason words have power is because we give them power. Sometimes the best thing you can do is learn to walk away.

If you take a thousand people, and allow them free speech, a proportion of their collective emotions will be hatred. However, if you make it illegal, if you suppress them, then eventually, you will start to observe the hatred being concentrated in certain individuals, until eventually, they burst and perform something excessivley violent. We all need to share the burden of the energies of this planet, we can not pick and choose what we have to experience, because what we suppress in ourselves, will just be taken up by others.

or you could just make clear laws like in the uk where racial or homophobic hate speech is illegal and you can pretty much say anything else you want aslong as its not you must go and kill now.

Originally posted by lewman
or you could just make clear laws like in the uk where racial or homophobic hate speech is illegal and you can pretty much say anything else you want aslong as its not you must go and kill now.

I am under the impression that the UK is being bombarded by Muslim extremists. Since you didn't leave any links to the articles on your free speech, I in turn will not take the time to look up the Muslim issue and post any links. I am sorry but I feel your post( and your laws)is kid of contradicting the whole free speech idea. I know that the US has hate crime laws, but some of these cases can also be a little in the "gray area" in clarification.

This is a touchy subject, I know, but we cannot forget that these laws can be bent and warped to whatever the "people" in power wish to make of them. Just do not allow yourself to fall into TPTB traps of false freedoms.

reply to post by guillotinegleam


Excellent post. Americans must keep the elite from having the power to use the government to censor speech. They will take that power like TSA as taken their power to sexually molest every man, woman and child in the US. The elite are toltaltarians.