Why "hate speech" must be protected speech

Youtube is a wondrous thing!
I watched a panel discussion with (among others) Milo Yiannopoulos a British GAY man, which discussion took place at  UMass, Amhurst on April 25, 2016, during which Milo gave the best example of the truth of the title of this blog post.

Milo spoke about the BNP, the British National Party, a far right (some would even say "fascist") political organization within the UK, which espouses racism, homophobia, and every other bad "-ism" that frightens modern day Social justice Warriors so much.  It was led by (in Milo's words) "a very odious character called Nick Griffin."

He told the audience that for a rather long while, the British media was "boycotting" the BNP; BBC did not report on their activities or opinions and neither did any of the British press.  The people of the UK heard NOTHING about the BNP or Mr. Griffin, the party's leader, other than the sanitized, out-for-votes, soundbits put out by the BNP itself, and thus the party won control of many local councils (the Brit version of city councils and county supervisor boards, etc), and they were growing and getting more control in more local councils, mostly out of anxieties of the public about immigration and the changing nature of local communities.

Then came the day when the media embargo ended.  The BBC had Mr. Griffin appear on the show "Question Time", an hour long discussion program.  As Milo stated, "as anyone with any brains at all would be able to predict the BNP evaporated.   When the British people saw what this guy who ran this party was really like, they stopped voting for that party.  A couple of years later, the BNP is no longer a force in British politics.  This is why it isn't just important to give a platform to ordinary speech, but it's important to give platforms to ALL speech, because 'sunlight is the best disinfectant'".

The best way to deal with people you don't agree with, with people with odious opinions and beliefs is the full glare of the spotlight.   As I've said before in this very blog, the only way to root out bigotry and prejudice and discrimination is the market place.  If we silence the bigots and the racists and the homophobes and all the other favorite "bad guys"of all good and decent people, then society, out of ignorance that they are doing so, will continue to give money and validation to these vermin.  Let them spew their hatred openly.  If they do it loudly enough (and we all know they will because they just LURVE hearing themselves pontificate!) and often enough, more and more people will know exactly what they believe and, more importantly, **Who. They. Are.**  then more and more people will cease their support of these bigots.  If it causes a small uptick in actual discrimination then that must be tolerated for the long-term benefit of getting these people out of positions of power in society.  Any worries about mass discrimination happening are baseless.  This isn't the 1940s and 1950s etc. any more.  There are vastly more people that are non-racist, non-bigots now than in the Jim Crow days.  Plus (and this is the important part) without government-sanctioned discrimination (Jim Crow was, above all,  a set of LAWS) there would have been much less discrimination in the 40s and 50s and early 60s than there actually was.  Even more so today, there are vastly more non-bigots around than before, so any fears of massive uptick in discrimination is just a steaming pile of BS.

You want bigotry and discrimination to stop?  Shine a light on it.  Expose it for the hate that it is and the good people will respond appropriately.  Hide it, cover it up, and silence it, and it will just fester and never go away.