The voices of Progressivism (nice fascism). This comes on the Room For Debate page, and, of course,
It’s become clear that the man who is accused of slaughtering nine people in a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., had becomederanged by racial hatred, and was inspired by organized groups who shared his views. Since 9/11, national security agencies have focused on Muslim terror threats from abroad. But the threat of domestic hate groups has grown as government resources to combat them have shrunk.
How should we deal with the threat of rightwing extremism?
Is there any point in delving into all the left wing extremism, the violence, the threats, the fact that so many of these domestic murderers share many beliefs with Progressives? Na. We know it, Leftists are in denial. The NY Times will never admit it. But, let’s consider that 4 out of the 5 Leftists involved with this debate call for suppression of free speech and thought. For the most odious, we do not even have to go beyond Jessie Daniels’ headline
A clear violation of the 1st Amendment. Mark Pitcavage starts down the right road, then goes off the tracks
Rightwing extremism takes many forms and its adherents engage in many activities, from spreading propaganda to major acts of terrorism. The most effective strategies for responding to these activities involve exposing and countering them, while respecting constitutional boundaries.
As a general rule of thumb, the best response to hate speech is more speech. The First Amendment protects freedom of expression, including hate speech. But people have a right to speak out when they encounter hate: Whether in town halls or on social media, they can drown out the voices of hate and anger. People of goodwill outnumber extremists.
The best response to criminal conduct is effective law enforcement action. When someone engages in bias-motivated violence, law enforcement should enforce hate crime laws. Currently, 45 states and the federal government have hate crime laws on the books but some, including South Carolina, do not. Accurate hate crime reporting is also a must.
Criminalizing thought. Then we have Cornell William Brooks
Five states, including South Carolina, do not have hate crime legislation on their books. All states should have hate crime laws that impose harsher penalties for crimes motivated by a victim’s race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, color, national origin or age.
We need to engage faith communities, business communities and our civic organizations in a robust campaign to combat symbols used by hate groups. Whether for the Confederate flag that flies in front of the American flag at the South Carolina state house or the Confederate flag embedded in the state flag of Mississippi, we must demand an unqualified rejection of such symbols of hate and call on Americans, as both citizens and consumers, to boycott companies that support these symbols as well.
So, enforcing thought crimes and banning certain symbols. Remember, it’s Free Speech to trash, jump on, and burn the U.S. flag, but Free Speech should be stopped for things like the Confederate flag. But, hey, if Mr. Brooks wants to talk about hate, as part of his job with the NAACP, what about charging all those Blacks involved in 50% of the murders, an a goodly chunk of other violent crime, as haters?
William Braniff also starts strong, then finishes with a whimper
Between 1990 and 2013, there were 155 ideologically motivated homicide events committed by far-right extremists in the U.S., killing 368 individuals. From 1995 to 2010, there were 239 arson and bombing attacks committed by the ecoterrorism groups Earth Liberation Front (E.L.F.) and Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.), approximately 90 percent of which targeted businesses and private homes. And between 1980 and 2013, there were 196 failed and foiled plots associated with Al Qaeda. (In addition, NBC news recently cited a statistic, alleging that 52 U.S. citizens and/or permanent residents have been charged with supporting the Islamic state over the last 15 months – a significant uptick in arrests).
Oh, look, lots of Left wing attacks.
In all of these cases, community-based approaches to countering violent extremism have an important role to play. For instance, Dylann Roof’s acquaintances were generally aware of his racism but were not primed to take it seriously and direct him to an intervention program. It is also possible that existing programs, such as those addressing gang violence, school violence or violent Islamist extremism were seen as the wrong fit for Roof’s issues.
Once we acknowledge that rightwing extremism is among the many forms of violent extremism tearing at the fabric of American society, raising awareness and developing community-based prevention, intervention and rehabilitation programming are the next steps in minimizing the threat.
So, not only deeming thought crimes and restricting free speech, but forced rehabilitation.
Liberals shouldn’t forget the old saying: “Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.” And their fascistic anti-free speech/thought prescriptions would certainly come back and bite them in the ass.
