American has no hate speech laws. The 1st Amendment is sacrosanct and would require a Constitutional Amendment to limit it. Again, Musk is not an antisemite. His X platform runs on the premise that people are free to say what they will and those who oppose what is 'said' should debate vehemently. There are nations in the West who do have hate speech laws and do restrict speech and yet have seen enormous marches against Israel, and yes, against Jews.
I know that this is an emotional issue for Jewish people, and Israelis in general, but most Americans aren't in agreement that speech should be limited (other than in extreme cases) mostly because the question of "who decides what gets banned" is an open-ended one.
Who should decide? A group consisting of Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and their partners in Jew-hatred? It's the Left in this country (the country most represented and 'vocal' on X) that is spilling vile hatred of Jews and Israel. If not for Musk's X, we wouldn't know about all the miscreants tearing down the post-ups of the hostages, and we wouldn't see the accounts on X who are shaming and exposing these same miscreants. They'd still be doing this even if speech were curtailed. They didn't just become antisemitic last month. The best way to propagandize people is to limit what they can hear, read, and say. Just one side is permitted. That's Gaza under Hamas, isn't it really?
Do we really want to act as they act?
Justice Robert Jackson in 1943 in the midst of a World War when anti-American speech and anti-patriotism could have placed the nation in serious danger should it spread:
We can have intellectual individualism and the rich cultural diversities that we owe to exceptional minds only at the price of occasional eccentricity and abnormal attitudes. When they are so harmless to others or to the State as those we deal with here, the price is not too great. But freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us."
It's very tempting to silence your opponents -especially when you're in a crisis- but the day will come when this is turned around on you. This is why Americans don't want their right to free speech limited in the public forum. They sense tyranny waits behind it.
I know this doesn't sway you. The media has done a good job smearing Elon Musk. They want control of speech. But please try to understand why Americans don't correlate being pro 1A with supporting antisemitism, racism, bigotry, etc.
American has no hate speech laws. The 1st Amendment is sacrosanct and would require a Constitutional Amendment to limit it. Again, Musk is not an antisemite. His X platform runs on the premise that people are free to say what they will and those who oppose what is 'said' should debate vehemently. There are nations in the West who do have hate speech laws and do restrict speech and yet have seen enormous marches against Israel, and yes, against Jews.
I know that this is an emotional issue for Jewish people, and Israelis in general, but most Americans aren't in agreement that speech should be limited (other than in extreme cases) mostly because the question of "who decides what gets banned" is an open-ended one.
Who should decide? A group consisting of Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and their partners in Jew-hatred? It's the Left in this country (the country most represented and 'vocal' on X) that is spilling vile hatred of Jews and Israel. If not for Musk's X, we wouldn't know about all the miscreants tearing down the post-ups of the hostages, and we wouldn't see the accounts on X who are shaming and exposing these same miscreants. They'd still be doing this even if speech were curtailed. They didn't just become antisemitic last month. The best way to propagandize people is to limit what they can hear, read, and say. Just one side is permitted. That's Gaza under Hamas, isn't it really?
Do we really want to act as they act?
Justice Robert Jackson in 1943 in the midst of a World War when anti-American speech and anti-patriotism could have placed the nation in serious danger should it spread:
We can have intellectual individualism and the rich cultural diversities that we owe to exceptional minds only at the price of occasional eccentricity and abnormal attitudes. When they are so harmless to others or to the State as those we deal with here, the price is not too great. But freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us."
It's very tempting to silence your opponents -especially when you're in a crisis- but the day will come when this is turned around on you. This is why Americans don't want their right to free speech limited in the public forum. They sense tyranny waits behind it.
I know this doesn't sway you. The media has done a good job smearing Elon Musk. They want control of speech. But please try to understand why Americans don't correlate being pro 1A with supporting antisemitism, racism, bigotry, etc.
Thank you for this diary. It's appreciated.