Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

Antiracist progressives today often encounter the conservative backlash that twists the democratic doctrine of free speech into an absolutist or ‘purist’ form – weaponizing it as a warped defence of white supremacy in a way that seeks to make #racism legally acceptable.

Today the New/Alt-Right is asserting a putative political need for an ostensibly democratic society to maintain an absolute tolerance of abusive & even assaultive speech – as protected forms of dissent.

The free speech fallacy: opposition to hate speech imperils free speech.

Herbert Marcuse believed that this doctrine of absolute tolerance of 'free speech' was being systematically utilised to abuse guarantees against bigotry & discrimination, & to derail or destroy the possibility of democratic egalitarianism.

Many protect neofascist speech, but classical liberalism intended speech protections primarily for powerless minority voices expressing dissent against the ideology of dominant interests, not to protect establishment voices that are already hegemonic as well as often distasteful.

‘This pure tolerance of sense & nonsense’ practiced under the conditions prevailing in the United States today ‘…cannot fulfil the civilizing function attributed to it by the liberal protagonists of democracy, namely protection of dissent.’ (Herbert Marcuse, 1965).

The assertion, often heard nowadays, that racist and sexist views contribute necessary components of cultural diversity and belong within an inclusive pluralism is an utterly perverse example of vicious cultural and political double-speak.

After 6 January 2021, Tech-platforms banned Donald Trump in an effective action against a #neofascist threat of force & violence against liberal political leaders & ordinary citizens. Freedom of speech in not absolute & must be viewed in the context of its political consequences.

Crimes by the Right are tolerated by the US state eg racist police brutality, rejecting comprehensive health care, treating asylum seekers as criminals, implementing the death penalty in a racially biased manner, supplying training to Govts that commit human rights abuses etc.

We need a strategy to oppose racism, bigoted nationalism, & warlike patriotism - to go on the offensive for the changes that can support & extend race & other equality, labour freedoms, economic abundance, peace, & communal well-being: a ‘Great Refusal’.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…