I’m a civil libertarian. We’re practically extinct now. There were never very many of us, but there used to be a lot more. Most people simply don’t support your right to say something they disagree with. And therein lies the rub, as the Bard once said. Political correctness, “hate speech,” call it what you want. It destroys liberty.I have recounted many times the origin of the expression “you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater.” Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes used that phrase to explain why Woodrow Wilson had the right to throw WWI protesters into prison. They weren’t yelling fire, in a theater or otherwise. But the American public of that day and age accepted it. Didn’t offer up a whimper of dissent. In 1942, the Supreme Court, in a 9-0 decision, decided that “insulting or ‘fighting words’, those that by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace” are among the “well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem.” Now, Americans in 1942 were in full WW2 war fever mode. They were too busy buying bonds and planting Victory Gardens to worry about any “Fighting Words” exception to the First Amendment. We had Nazis to defeat- screw free speech!Think of all that could potentially be construed as “fighting words.” If someone says something bad about your wife, do you have the right to respond with physical violence? This was the Supreme Court kind of validating the Creed of the Hood, forty years before Hollywood started celebrating the “hood.” I don’t have to tell you what can happen if someone “disrespects” your mama. Ghetto culture especially benefits from this flawed decision, which put yet another asterisk on the Bill of Rights. I grew up well after 1942, but we were still taught that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” And now, emboldened by a Supreme Court decision none of them are even aware of, our ghetto culture uses the “fighting words” exemption to enable angry Blacks to batter hapless Whites, and then attribute it to being assaulted by certain words. Fighting words. Well, if you hear fighting words, what else can you do but fight? Usually starting with a sucker punch.I abandoned my liberal roots because the Left had already become unduly concerned with policing language, in the late 1970s. When the term “politically correct” was invented, and not met with incredulity, the die was cast. After all, if something is politically correct, that means that society has determined that there are opinions, words, that are politically incorrect. Not permissible in a country supposedly protected by a First Amendment. We should be free to be politically wrong, politically stupid, politically deranged. We should be able to say basically anything we want. Sure, saying something mean and confrontational to a person may result in you being punched. And if you’re injured seriously enough, you may sue that person for losing his cool and injuring you. But no one should ever be able to justify a physical attack based upon anything that someone else said. The Left today thinks otherwise. They declare that words are violence. They support punching “nazis” in the face.This authoritarian mindset resulted in the creation of cancel culture. Which was all based on words. Words that are protected under the First Amendment. Innocent Whites- and make no mistake- cancel culture, political correctness, and “hate speech” are all tyrannical concepts directed exclusively towards Whites- lost their jobs over things they posted on social media. On their own free time. It doesn’t get much more unconstitutional than that. And this heavy handed policing of speech began to spill over into genuine insanity. Medical students got into trouble for stating the most obvious truth imaginable; that only biological women can give birth. You couldn’t challenge the changing of “pronouns.” You had to take seriously some indoctrinated student who declared that her new “pronouns” were “they/them.” A plural. Don’t even think about what might happen if you “misgendered” one of these mentally ill persons in a land lacking mental institutions. Instead, we have institutionalized “Wokeness.”But the Right has shown over the past few years, that they have their own version of insane cancel culture. While the Left wants to censor any criticism of any nonwhite, or any non-heterosexual, the Right is trying desperately to make criticism of Israel illegal. Both the Left and the Right want to censor their political opponents. Nobody wants to defend to their dying day the right of someone to say things, even if they find them thoroughly objectionable. That is so eighteenth century. If they had a public referendum to vote yay or nay on the First Amendment, I honestly believe most Americans would vote nay. You can’t just say anything you want! What if it’s racist? What if it’s anti-Semitic? What if it’s sexist? What if it’s homophobic? What if it’s transphobic? Today, what someone says seems to be more important than what they do. We’re policing speech as much as we police conduct. No more speeches about sticks and stones. We’re all ghetto single mothers now; don’t let no one disrespect you!If a man (and I’m pretty sure it has to be a White man) compliments a woman on some part of her anatomy, or perhaps even how pretty her outfit is, he may be in danger of getting in trouble. For speech. And most people- certainly most women- would agree that he should get in trouble for offending that woman. The word “offended” isn’t in the Constitution. You’re not supposed to have a “right” to not be offended. That seems self-explanatory, but the vast majority of people now believe that there is a protection against being “offended” somewhere in the Bill of Rights. Slander and defamation is one thing, and there have always been laws against them. But who determines what “offended” means? It’s a subjective, not objective term. It cannot be legally quantified, much like “hate,” another favorite term of censorship advocates. It’s based on emotion, not reason. So it’s perfect for today’s “Woke” Left, but also for today’s Zionist Right, which gets “offended” by “hate” directed at Israel.If there is any group in America 2.0 which still has free speech, it’s our second largest, but most noticeable minority group. I’m glad someone has free speech, but many Blacks use it primarily to bash all White people, and immerse themselves in historical victimization over slavery. They possess a 24/7 persecution complex, and they feel compelled to share it with everyone. The problem with their free speech, however, is that it often results in infringing on the free speech of others. Saying the World’s Most Dangerous Word can result in criminal prosecution now. Ask Shiloh Hendrix. Some words have become sticks and stones in our society. If they offend Blacks. Or the non-Irish. Or transgenders. Or plain old White feminists. But no one else has these “being offended” rights. Least of all, average White males. Rich White males, like all rich people, have unending rights. But, if they get caught saying the wrong thing to the wrong people, they’ll be shuttled off to another high paying position.It’s a short leap from monitoring and punishing speech to monitoring and punishing thoughts. Literal Thoughtcrime. While Black street criminals have the “right” to call out some hapless White for “looking” at them, some White females have taken to confronting certain hapless White males for “staring” at them. Perhaps staring at the “wrong part” of their body. Sexualizing them. Which is related to thought, if their thoughts are indeed impure. At any rate, that’s an incredibly slippery slope, but no one seems to feel that White men, like everyone else, have a right to look at other people. This includes hyper sensitive Blacks and attractive females. The rationale- which isn’t remotely rational- is that such “looks” can make Black people, or women, feel “uncomfortable.” This is another special right granted only to selected groups. The ones called “marginalized,” but in reality overtly favored. Gay Pride parades and drag brunches make many of us “uncomfortable,” but those feelings don’t matter.Read the Whole ArticleThe post Free Speech on Life Support appeared first on LewRockwell.