Offensive speech should be protected, but, if you speak only to offend, you're still an asshole. Classical Liberals are making a strategic error defending offensive speech in particular so often, instead of free speech in general.
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There are times to give offense, of course -- when it serves a higher good. But, in general, offensive speech should be framed as an "unfortunate, but ineliminable" side-effect of protecting free speech in general, not as somehow good in-and-of itself.
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Replying to @Evolving_Ego
A better strategy IMHO: if you think that speech is offensive and you cannot just ignore it because it happens in a context that warrants engagement, point out to the speaker why you think the speech is offensive, and how that makes it difficult for you to engage with its content
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Replying to @Plinz
Yes. That's coming at it from the other side. I agree. It takes two to have reasonable dialectic/dialogue. And I'm not using "offensive" as a synonym for "someone can take offense".
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Replying to @Evolving_Ego
The problem is that "offensive" is an entirely observer dependent notion. If you are a competent preschool teacher, nothing your kids say can offend you. Likewise, if you are a fully competent adult, nothing some kid on youtube says can offend you.
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Replying to @Plinz
There is an empirical fact of "being likely to offend reasonable people." (for some conception of "reasonable" that I'll leave unspecified for now). And I'm not saying that we shouldn't offend, but merely that a non-asshole will justify offense in such circumstances.
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Replying to @Evolving_Ego @Plinz
And, again, I'm for defending free speech for assholes. But it's a strategic error to always be seen defending assholes. It's bad framing.
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IMHO, Milo, Ann Coulter and Shanley Kane were professional trolls, but they exploited the fact that their critics cannot distinguish them from Jordan Peterson, Steve Bannon or Judith Butler, i.e. people they might deeply disagree with but that nonetheless do not argue to offend.
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