Americans who support Hamas are hideous. I’m allowed to say that because I’m an American. For now, I cannot be arrested for voicing such an opinion. For now.
It greatly annoys me when kids take to the streets to chant about “Palestine” being free from the river to the sea. It annoys me further when I see videos of college “Free Palestine” groups doing intellectual gymnastics through fields of moral ambiguity as they try to justify the kidnapping, rape, and murder of scores of Israelis by Hamas terrorists. And for the record, I get equally annoyed when I hear warmongers talking about how we or Israel should just nuke Gaza and be done with it.
But as annoyed as I may get, I would never try to stifle their speech through policy. I wouldn’t hire any of them for my company. I probably wouldn’t enjoy having a beer with them. I would love to debate them or engage in a counter protest at one of their events. But I would never try to prevent them from speaking anything lawfully whether I agreed with it or not.
The keyword there is “lawfully.” I am close to being a free speech absolutist, but I draw the line at speech that can cause real world harm. For example, a jaded ex-boyfriend can’t proclaim to a crowd or on social media the address of his ex-girlfriend, the times when she’s at home, the fact that she doesn’t own a firearm, and the location of her spare key in the fake rock to the right of her porch. That ex-boyfriend can’t claim “free speech” when she’s raped and murdered.
In regards to radical Islamic terrorism, I do not approve of rallying support for violence. There’s a very big difference between someone screaming “Free Palestine” and someone screaming “Let’s burn down this synagogue and murder Jews!” Again, free speech is limited only by the actual harm that it can cause, not the theoretical harm from “hate speech.”
In Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Supreme Court said speech loses First Amendment protection if it calls for and is likely to lead to “imminent lawless action.” That means saying “I hate Jews” is legal but saying “Let’s go beat up some Jews” is not.
Leftists who support Israel (yes, there are a few) would argue that the “hate speech” being used during pro-Hamas rallies or in meetings of pro-Hamas groups should be outlawed. Nikki Haley falls into this category by threatening to revoke funding from schools that allow it. According to Based Politics:
The Republican recently said, “We do need to make sure on these college campuses that we hold these universities accountable. They get the right to freedom of speech… but that doesn’t mean they get the right to freedom of hate.”
Actually, yes they do, Nikki. Hate speech, extreme speech, even most types of violent speech, are all protected by the First Amendment. But Haley sees these students’ speech as such a menace that she would revoke their constitutional rights.
Some will argue that these pro-Hamas idiots in America are “materially” aiding the terrorist group with their supportive words. This is ludicrous. Ron DeSantis is using this argument. According to Based Politics:
The governor recently forced Florida’s public universities to “deactivate” the student group Students for Justice in Palestine and said in a speech that the group’s claims “are part of what Hamas is doing” and that amounts to “material support to terrorism and that is not going to be tolerated in the state of Florida.”
DeSantis has provided no material evidence that this group has given “material support” —weapons, money, resources—to Hamas. He has just described their speech, and even if they are speaking in disgusting ways about faraway violence, that is still protected by the First Amendment. But DeSantis sees these students’ speech as such a menace that he is suppressing their constitutional rights.
This particular argument by DeSantis is the epitome of the proverbial “slippery slope.” If we claim that people are materially aiding Hamas by chanting their talking points and echoing their antisemitic sentiment, then we’ve fallen into the scariest trap. If we set the precedent that rallying for a “free Palestine” is materially aiding Hamas, then that precedent will be used against freedom-loving Americans in the near future.
It’s a false equivalent to compare Hamas and mass murderers in America, but don’t believe for a second that the left will be dissuaded from making the comparison. And if those who support “free Palestine” are considered to be aiding Hamas, then the left’s logic will dictate that those who support the 2nd Amendment are aiding mass murderers.
There are dozens of examples of how stifling pro-Hamas speech could lead to stifling the lawful speech of Americans. The gun example is simply the most likely argument to fall down that slippery slope first.
I get truly furious when I see these idiotic, uninformed, indoctrinated Americans chanting “from the river to the sea.” I can’t watch the videos anymore because it makes me so upset, and I have a high tolerance for viewing idiotic or heinous videos. But calls to suppress their speech by GOP candidates and many conservatives are misplaced. The moment we start stifling others’ lawful speech is the moment the globalists will turn our own words against us.
Sound off about this article on my Substack.
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The critique and admonition to watch ones words is fine, but singling out chief rivals to Trump and not mentioning Trumps imprecision is in its way also the epitome of the proverbial “slippery slope.” — Trump can say no wrong.
Just refer to some of Trumps ill-considered meanderings and defued that they are not similar if extrapolated as supporting something improper or even nefarious. You would say you would not abridge Trumps speech, and that he has been victimized in that way, but you criticize others (while maintaining their rights) but do not criticise Trump which amounts to an abuse of fairness you call for in others.
Well written. I did not understand a thing.
This cooment sounds extremely vaccinated.
This comment sounds extremely vaccinated.
So we should keep affirming the rights of our self avowed enemies until the last one of us is dead, but hey we held the high ground right?
This is asymmetric war and has to be fought as such.
High minded words now would be like DEMANDING clean restrooms on the one way trips to a concentration camp.
No thanks, no sale. We can trample those that want to kill us – yes kill every one of us – and clean up the mess made to our Constitution later because we survived to do it and they didn’t survive.
Our constitution is NOT a suicide pact.
Your comment sounds suspiciously like trading some freedom for securiry. This never works as “cleaning up the mess” doesnt make it as good as the original. Best to not give up the freedom because you never fully get it back.
Speach is speach. If no action is included, the freedom to say it is absolute. Yes, SCOTUS was wrong again. The “suicide pact” comment is too often used to restrict freedoms, never to expand them.
We have two aircraft carriers ready to start world war 3 because most of America and the world believes that Jesus was a Jew. Even though the Jews killed Jesus, we for some reason believe that they are God’s chosen people and we have to worship them. It is so easy to Google or read the Bible and find out that Mary was from the tribe of Levi. The Jews stole the word Israel from the rest of their brothers so most people think that Israel is only Jews. There were 12 other brothers and Jacob, or the house of Jacob, got the blessing.. not only that, but Jews run every major wicked industries in the world from big money, big Hollywood, big Wall Street, big pharma etc. I’m from the south so we never had angst against Jews because we didn’t even know what a Jew was other than Jesus and now we find out that is a lie. Jesus had to be a levite because he is a high priest. These globalist Jews made a world that nobody wants to live in. And they wonder why the world hates them
Wrong on many counts.
I don’t know who you “learned” that nonsense from, but whoever it is, he’s extremely ignorant, at best.
The 12 tribes are the sons of Jacob (who was called Israel), not the brothers of Jacob.
Mary was of the tribe of Judah, as was Joseph. See: https://www.gotquestions.org/Mary-lineage.html
The word “Jew” is derived from the Hebrew word “Yehudah” (also spelled Jehudah), and the Greek spelling is “Iouda” (which sounds the same as the Hebrew word). Yehudah is the name of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. When the northern and southern kingdoms split, the southern kingdom went by the name Judah, and the northern kingdom went by the name Israel. Judah then referred to the tribes in the southern kingdom. By the time of Jesus, the northern kingdom no longer existed, and the word Yehudah/Iouda, which is translated to English as “Jew”, referred to all 12 tribes. See Strongs 2453, 3063, 2448, etc.
Jesus absolutely was a Jew, of the tribe of Judah.
Some have tried to claim Jesus is “Judean”, based on certain scriptures, but the Greek word translated as Judean is Ioudaia – the ia suffix means “land of”, so the Greek word literally means “land of the Iouda” – “land of the Yehudah” i.e., “land of the Jews”.
Sometimes even God cannot FIX STUPID…Dalton, you reading this?
Jesus is absolutely Jewish. Go read Matt 1, the 1st verse on the New Tesament (and then the parallel Luke 3); ”The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham…” https://bible.com/bible/114/mat.1.1.NKJV
But I suppose you already read that and just choose make up stuff anyways.
LOST and IGNORANT you are, DALTON.
Man, ever read the BIBLE? Do you have a soul? Hope so, your grey matter needs some help.
So many people write shat here about the Bible and I can tell they have never opened the book. Perhaps cannot read?
Look up “Maurice Samuel quotes”, and this will justify your thoughts.
not true
I really would like to hear the history of Israel and Palestine from both perspectives. They should start from the same era, going back as far as history is known until the present day. I can then fact-check it from several sources.
Neither Israel nor Palestine, as any group, are wholly represented by their leaders, same as America having many divides within our leadership.
What is taking place now and what is to come, mostly likely all over the world, is a battle of good versus evil. Before all is said and done, you won’t be able to tell one from the other. Both sides will have to become tired of the killing before it will stop.
TIME TO WARN then OPEN FIRE: ELIMINATE THE CANCER HERE NOW…I will IF THEY COME NEAR MY DOMICILE.
NO mercy. It is EXACTLY HOW GOD WANTED the JEW to do BEFORE THEY MOVED into His ‘promised land’…these MORONS, IDIOTS, ASSHOLES ALL GOTTA GO- W I T H O U T MERCY.
But the Jew had compassion and did not listen, did NOT FOLLOW DIRECTIONS or these PUKES would have been ELIMINATED CENTURIES AGO.
F – ALL TERRORISTS, TERRORISM. And Joe O-Biden, the WORST OUR COUTRY HAS EVER LIVED THROUGH (are we through?).
jd,
yeah, the shtick against hamas supporters is increasingly strident and stupid. but that’s my point — it’s a shtick. who are the mass manipulators of our times? — politicians. whether conservative, liberal, far-right, way left, it doesn’t matter; a big crisis with unstoppable controversy is about as good as it gets for roping in votes (and campaign donations). the mob on the hill is not that dumb; we are. with an intensely divided landscape of voters, it’s much easier to stir the pot with irresponsible invective. we’re easily baited in these times of anger and alienation. the capitol crowd is betting (literally) on our deep well of long-term, visceral indignation. with sides are drawn so sharply, politicians smell the feast, and swoop down like vultures, playing the solemn, heroic champion of cause and outrage. we applaud. they collect.
I am conservative, I do not support Hamas. I also do not support Israel and the mental gymnastics that some go through to justify the existence of an ethno-state (Israel requires a blood test to prove Jewish ancestor for citizenship, it is the definition of an ethnostate.) I do not agree with the huge amount of foreign aid given to ANY nation, this includes Israel. I do not like being called an “anti-semite” for saying that “bombing civilians is wrong”.
The only terrorism is this country is supported by most of the Jews. The predawn raids, the targeting of MAGA, the politicization of our courts, etc. Most of the Jews in this country think Vindman is a hero. Most of the Jews in this country support the LBGT agenda and mutilation of kids. I refuse to support my oppressor and it is morally wrong to expect others to do the same. Most of the Jews in this country dance on the graves of Babbitt and Boyland.