-----Original Message----- From: Charles Brown <CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us> To: Lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <Lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Most who take an ACLU radical or
>absolute free speech position for
>protecting KKK and neo-Nazi speech
>DO VERY LITTLE IN
>COUNTERING THE FASCISTIC
>RACIST SPEECH in the
>marketplace of ideas.
And your justification for this statement is...squat?
I would venture to say that within the pool of free speech absolutists is a dramatically higher percentage of people who confront racists and fascists on a routine basis.
The ACLU as an organization may defend racist free speech, but they also defend those fighting racism and fascism even more stoutly - in fact, the main purpose of defending the fascists/racists is to create an absolutist space for the Left to defend its activites.
If you think a weakening of free speech safeguards will harm the Right more than the Left, with Justices Rehnquist and Scalia jailing fascists in the name of the common good, you live on a different planet.
--Nathan Newman