“Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious” - George Orwell


You have free speech, or you have violence.

The fix for speech that is hateful or offensive isn't to limit or sensor it. The correct approach is to openly discuss it. This allows us to have conversations and battles of ideas in the arena of verbal debate, instead of battles and blood in the streets. Here we can weigh the facts, evidence, morality, and results of ideas. This is how we test and promulgate good ideas, and how we expose bad ones.

As it becomes accepted to limit offensive speech, it is only a matter of time before it becomes justified in peoples minds to initiate violence against others who participate in the speech they find offensive. This is the road to totalitarianism. As we dive into this, it is important to note that we are talking about violence against people for their thoughts and words, not people who are initiating violent actions. Self defense against those people is justified.

When it’s ok to “Punch a Nazi in the face” for thoughts and not actions, it then becomes ok to “Throw communists out of helicopters.”

As these justifications for initiating of violence take root, the definition of what a Nazi and a Communist are expand well beyond their original ones. The result is that those who disagree with you will slap you with one label or the other, justifying violence against you. 

This begins as the actions of extremists and those on the fringes of society. However, as more and more people are slapped with these labels, more will become radicalized. This leads to an escalation of violence, and has serious consequences for society. We are seeing this now in the United States. Violence begets violence. 

The idea that, “all evil needs to triumph is for good people to do nothing,” applies greatly in todays society. The decent people that still make up the bulk of our society need to make their voices heard loudly, and without reservation. 

We must denounce and disavow ALL forms of political violence. This applies to violent riots at UC Berkeley, police officers shot and killed in Dallas, Senators shot at during a baseball practice, killings at a nightclub in Florida, as well as the white supremacists and Antifa clashes in Charlottesville. 

Good and decent people must make it clear we will not accept this violence. Whether it be from your side, or another side. Whether it is supported by celebrities, politicians, news anchors, or even our friends and family, we must denounce it. 

When the words stop, all that is left is violence. If we do not reopen free speech and debate today, the future of our society will be dictated by the thugs that thrive on political violence in the streets tomorrow. When I say free speech I don't mean shouting down those who you disagree with. I am calling for civil and intelligent debate based upon reason and evidence. These are not my ideas, but the words and lessons of many others throughout history. 

We can have free speech or we can have violence. We must choose correctly.