Hate Speech

5 Pages 1152 Words

Should Hate Speech Be Censored?

“I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it.” (Voltaire) This is a quote that I strongly agree with. Today freedom of speech is used to help make changes all over the world but in some cases it is used to help encourage ignorant beliefs that have nearly died out over time. I am speaking about Hate Speech. It is one of the morally wrong things that the first amendment allows us to do and protects us from being persecuted by the government for it. I am not advocating any of the hate speeches made or agreeing with what they say but I am agreeing to the idea that no matter how bad or wrong it may be they should still have the right to say it.
“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” is a book that claims that Jews are secretly controlling the world or attempting to. It is a book that hate groups abide by and read almost religiously. This book has helped to inspire the mass murders of millions of Jews around the world. Amazon.com and Barnes & Nobles sell these books in their stores and on the Internet. The two companies have been criticized for selling these books by the American Jewish Committee and I am sure by many other groups but they still continue to sell it. They choose to sell it because their essential policy is to try and sell every ever published. It is my opinion that the members of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) have probably read these books themselves in trying to understand where such racism and hate comes from. These books might serve as a tool for help but in many ways they can also be served as a tool for good.
Many of the books we read today in school at one point or another had been banned. The catcher in the rye, and The lord of the flies are just two examples, even though they do not compare to books preaching hate and violence the same principles apply. By censoring hate speech you are inevitably allowing a group of p...