Two Unpopular Forms of Expression: Hate Speech and Porn By the Political Heretic

Swank Home


Heretic’s Home


"Decency advocates are so intent on their objective, so convinced of their rightness and so submerged in their own time that they always should be aware of the possibility of mistake. Otherwise, they fall victim to the sort of hubris that led Comstock to dismiss the redoubtable George Bernard Shaw as “this Irish smut-dealer.”

Good and smart people differ over what indecency means. But there are two ways we can respond when dealing with whatever it is that we determine indecency to be. The easy way is to get a government official or agency to ban it or regulate it. The hard way is to engage it, decry it, discourage it, present a better alternative.

That is the hard way, but it should be the American way." - Paul McMasters

I fully agree with Mr. McMasters but liberals remember, the same can be said with hate speech. This school district
decided it would be best to ban all kinds of flags, banners, noisemakers, and "other objects" from football games. Why? Because the school didn't want people waving confederate flags.

The school obviously did not exercise viewpoint discrimination, which would require it to allow for some modes of expression conveying an approved message while prohibiting disfavored messages, but it is depriving its students and others in attendance from expressing their message and this is wrong. If someone decides to wave the confederate flag at a game, so be it. Let them. After all, "the answer to hate speech is more speech" or, as Mr. McMaster says, "engage it, decry it, discourage it, present a better alternative. That is the hard way, but it should be the American way."