Monday, April 28, 2014

Speech Crime In America?

Racism is repugnant.  But there is no such thing as speech crime or thought crime under the Constitution of the United States.  And for good reason.  To enforce speech crime or thought crime, government must intrude into one's mind to ascertain the color of his private thoughts and words.  As it rejects an objective moral standard, how could government discriminate blackness or whiteness of thought or word in individuals--and effect justice?  How lengthy, how lavish would be the prohibitions of law?  And what would enforcement cost us all?  In relative terms, it is far more reprehensible to make speech or thought a crime than it is to allow a racist or bigot to speak or think.  When speech is free, the truth emerges and ultimately prevails.  When it is not, falsehood smothers all humanity.  While racism is repugnant, it is distortionate and deleterious to Constitutional rights for our news media to treat it as speech crime or thought crime.

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