Doug Casey on hate speech

Hate speech is unpleasant. I don't like it any more than anybody else does.  But it's important that there be no regulation of what people say.  Not just because the First Amendment guarantees free speech, but because if you do regulate speech, who decides what's hateful?  It's not an objective standard.  It's an opinion.  And in a highly politicized environment like today's, that's asking for trouble. 

I'm all for people being allowed to say things that are hateful, simply because how else can you know who they are and what they believe?  Trying to preclude hate speech is about as stupid as trying to enforce loving speech.

I like to know what's going on in people's minds, as opposed to trying to guess.  Forewarned is forearmed.  Suppressing so-called hate speech is like putting a lid on a pressure cooker.  At some point, it will blow.  The best solution to so-called hate speech is open discussion.

~ Doug Casey, "Doug Casey on Whether Charlie Kirk's Death Could Be America's Franz Ferdinand Moment," International Man, September 24, 2025

 

George Orwell anticipates politically correct speech codes

Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?  In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.

~ George Orwell, 1984

Angela Merkel on the limits of free speech

Expressing an opinion does not come at zero cost.  But freedom of expression has its limits.  Those limits begin where hatred is spread.  They begin where the dignity of other people is violated.  This house will and must oppose free speech.  Otherwise our society will no longer be the free society that it was.

~ Angela Merkel

Milo Yiannopoulos defines hate speech

Hate speech seems to mean anything that a liberal doesn't like, or a fact that a liberal can't rebut, or an opinion or a joke that a liberal finds offensive, but can't fight on the merits.

~ Milo Yiannopoulos, "'Dangerous' Milo Yiannopoulos tells all," (8:20-8:31 mark), YouTube, July 12, 2017

Jordan Peterson on the right to offend

You're going to come out on stage and you're going to say something important about something vital, and you're not going to offend one person in a thousand?  Well, you can't say anything about anything important ever without offending, probably with the person you're talking to.  Important speech about important issues, especially contentious issues, is instantly offensive.

~ Jordan Peterson, "Free Speech and the Right to Offend, 0:23-0:44 mark, YouTube, March 14, 2018