Here's my take, for what it's worth:
Speech shouldn't be abridged, I agree wholeheartedly with the Constitution on that one. We also have laws against conspiracy, accessory, etc so that covers those who would intentionally try to incite violence through speech.
Should there be more laws put in place? Nope - there are literally thousands and thousands of politicians, pundits, advocates, lobbyists, etc. engaging in political vitriol daily - and hardly any violence has occurred as a result (the latest incident was NOT motivated by such speech).
We scream loud and shout over each other because we can, it's part of the way of a free society built upon discourse. A part of me suspects that should such speech be repressed, an outlet will be gone perhaps leading to more violence, but that's just speculative.
In the final analysis there has been acts of violence in response to speech and policy for as long as there's been speech and policy. Those acts are thankfully rare. Nutjobs will be nutjobs regardless. Letting our lowest common denominators force a free society into even a mild repression of its most fundamental right should be out of the question.
|