Moreover, it doesn't take much to see that the suppression of speech is a threat to order:we can’t have a system that is based on giving a veto to the most thin-skinned person in the room.
What I regard as unreasonable is different from what you regard as unreasonable and what I regard as offensive is different from what you do. And the only way we are going to be able to reconcile that in such a diverse society and I mean diverse intellectually, diverse politically, diverse religiously is if we say “well we are going to allow it all, as long as it doesn’t actually hurt anybody”, as long as it’s not incitement to violence or fraud, in fact I list about ten instances in one of my videos of the limits. For example, copyright is a limit on free expression in a way. Anyone who signs a confidentiality agreement is limiting their free expression. But we accept all of this because there is a basis of law in our culture for that.”
As long as a political or religious discussion does not flip over into a culture of violence, Levant believes that we should let our offended feelings go. “In a typical day we are probably offended by ten or twenty things. I can’t turn on the news at night without being offended. The number one response, just to keep our sanity, is to ignore things and to brush them off and not take things so personally. And if something just sticks in our craw, then rebut it, write a letter to your editor, call a radio talk show. And if you are really revved up by something, well then get politically active, start an activist group, lobby for a change. There is a degree in how we respond. That’s a civil society.”
Levant believes that if free speech is limited in civil society, violence will be the natural consequence. “If someone has an emotion, they feel a grievance, they feel like things are not fair, talking about it not only helps affect change, but it’s a way of dealing with issues. And if you are not allowed to say what is on your mind if the state forces you to apologize, I think that breeds deeper and deeper anger and resentment. Like pressure building in a pipe. So not only does free speech vent those feelings, but actually makes it possible for the world to be changed to remedy the underlying problem.”Is it not obvious that the inevitable result of HRC suppression of speech will be to cause the hatred of Muslims (and others) it's meant to prevent? Speech --even rude and hateful speech-- beats dueling and gang warfare.
