"a belief in the centrality of free speech to American democracy contends with ever more forceful progressive arguments that hate speech is a form of psychological and even physical violence"
From:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/06/us/a ... peech.html
I presume those of us who remember webdipvs forum in its unmoderated form have an opinion on this, one way or the other.
(Though i would like to point out that the webdip forums is not 'American democracy').
I should probably make my position clear.
1) speech can be violence. (imagine a child shaking in fear as they are shouted at by an adult; the physical responce in their body is the same as if they had been physically attacked; because they have been attacked).
2) you must make a choice between protection of all and tolerating those who don't care about the consequences of their speech. Look at the anonymous website like 4chan or similar, they devolve into the worst humanity has to offer, because those who care too much are driven out... There are many examples of where this kind of free speech leads. And none of them are particularly nice.