In New Zealand, the land of my birth, a petition is underway to deny entry to a woman who has committed no crime, on the grounds that she may say something offensive to Islam.
Some of the comments on the petition verge on Hate Speech: “I don’t like hate mongers, and personally I regard Libertarians as sociopaths and probably psychopaths as well, with zilch concern for the common good.”
This whole petition is morally wrong, seeking to suppress freedom of speech, but to assert that Libertarians are psychopaths is worse than what they accuse this woman of saying. In a free society we have to be able to discuss questions like “Is Islamophobia the only rational response to militant Islam?” Freedom of speech means hearing opinions we don’t agree with, and seeking to suppress dissent from your own opinion is the first symptom of Fascism.
I would add that no other person can offend you: it is you who choose to be offended, rather than respond rationally with your own argument. If we make it a crime to offend others, then we are all at the mercy of the easily offended.
This is a slippery path down to a future where we have no individual freedoms left “for our own good”.
