There Is No Such Thing as "Free" Speech (was RE: [Fwd: THE TEARS OF THE MIGHTY])

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Wed Mar 15 20:10:15 PST 2000



>From Doug to Charles:
>>So , I say the political value of freedom from racism is more
>>important than the value of freedom of speech.
>
>And who will decide what qualifies as "racism," and therefore
>unprotected? You? Bill Clinton? William Rehnquist? David Duke?

No *individual* can *alone* decide what racism is, however powerful he may be. How much concrete freedom -- including freedom of speech & freedom from racism -- we may enjoy gets *politically* decided by the balance of class and other powers. Having laws that protect "free speech" in theory doesn't help you at all if the political conditions are such that no one comes forward to defend you in case you get into trouble. The First Amendment didn't protect the Red-Purged.

Yoshie



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