Why I believe in the right to offensive, bigoted and hateful speech.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!

More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man's laws, not God's — and if you cut them down — and you're just the man to do it — d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.

from the play "A Man for All Seasons" by Robert Oxon Bolt.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. I believe in the right to repercussions too.

Yes, you can be a bigoted, hateful ass. And in return, everyone can treat you a such.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

2. Provided they obey the law, yes.

But there explicitly is a no right to violent response to speech you don't like, and there is a right to be protected from violence.

[tk2kewl]

5. Allowing hate speech makes it easy to identify the assholes

[sibelian]

3. It's bigotted THINKING that's the problem.

You can't change that by getting rid of bigotted WORDS. It's like putting a big sheet of paper over a hole in the roof saying "THERE IS NO HOLE HERE" and being amazed at still getting wet when it rains.

[Waiting For Everyman]

4. Obsessing about offenses is rubbish.

It changes nothing, it accomplishes nothing. It's the new "opiate of the masses" that keeps people wrapped up in pointlessness, a lot like contemplating one's navel.