I’ve been saying it for years. I think left-wing mobs policing politically incorrect speech on the internet are deplorable, but reactionaries will use the far greater powers of government to move the window of acceptable speech well to the right. That’s much more dangerous.
That day is here. The sliver of good news is that, barring a lurch towards unvarnished authoritarianism–which is by no means off the table–the likelihood of successful criminal prosecutions for “hate speech” is very low. There is no federal statute defining and prohibiting “hate speech,” and there is no prospect of one being enacted in the near future. The First Amendment, Pam Bondi’s comments notwithstanding, does not contain an exception for “hate speech.” Even Trump judges would show some respect for the First Amendment, and some right-wing commentators are uneasy about limiting “hate speech.” After all, they know those arguments could be used against them if the shoe is on the other foot.
Trump and his authoritarian friends have plenty of other weapons to quash dissent, however. I will be analyzing each of them in posts throughout the week.