mneme: (Default)
Joshua Kronengold ([personal profile] mneme) wrote 2017-05-25 04:23 pm (UTC)

Re: On the no-platforming of Nazis

I think Gary nails it here, but I'll add that "no platforming" isn't a real thing.

You can look at efforts to discourage distasteful speech in private settings for logical failures (as Mr. White does) in "this isn't really censorship" circular logic; people making justifications like "Speech advocation/encouraging violence isn't protected speech" have a tendency to use examples that aren't actually encouraging violence for things that should be banned, demonstrating a real, not speculative slippery slope -- but in the end, banning someone from saying shit you disapprove of in your living room (or private University) is an exercise of freedom of association, not a constraint on freedom of speech (and, yes, the same for banning "protestors" from your private political rally, because logical consistency is logically consistent).

I will point out--not that this isn't obvious--that not all things spoken are pure speech, and the law correctly differentiates them. Staying -well- away from crowded theater metaphor (which continues to be interesting, since in its context it's actually a good metaphor -despite- having been first coined as an argument for suppressing opposing political speech and it being perfectly reasonable to shout "fire" in a crowded theater in some circumstances), conspiracy to commit a crime is not protected speech. Assault is not protected speech, even if a credible threat is administered entirely verbally. Fraud is not speech, nor is harassment (that pesky freedom of association again; you can speak as you like, but if you follow me around shouting in my ear you are violating my rights). Inviting a racist and transphobe to speak on campus is entirely legit, as is them saying racist and transphobic shit -- but when they start libelling specific students, that might be a perfectly reasonable tort, and if their speech amounts to conspiracy to commit a crime against that student, they're likely liable for it.

Looking up to the thread, the chalk messages might have been protected speech, the noose was harassment or assault, IMO.

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