I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Edmund Burke said:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Perhaps that is what they thought just before they turned the hoses on MLK.
Perhaps they did think that but they were idiots then. MLK =/= Nazis.
true, but it happens sometimes in society (Germany 1930s and the South of the USA) that ideas from the Nazis/KKK are more popular then the ideas of MLK. In order to make sure MLK’s freedom of Speech is protected in such an era, we protect the Nazis/KKK(unless they become violent and/or break the law).
Also to put it as simply as possible… Good people fighting back against bad violent people for a very good reason =/= Good non-violent people being attacked by the state for a very bad reason (That sounded like a Trump sentence. Sad).
I would agree if the bad people in fact become violent. But if they do not, attacking them is assault. For the government not to protect them from assault because their opinions are unpopular, is violation of free speech. In other words an assault against a peaceful KKK protester needs to be treated the same by government as they would treat an assault against a peaceful civil rights protester.
An example of that would be if you said a guys wife was ugly and the state imprisoned you for saying it (probable FOC denial). Compared with you saying a guys wife was ugly and then that same guy punching you in the face. No denial of FOC but maybe you learned a lesson in politeness. Some people might deal with that situation differently…
but still, the guy that punched you in the face is guilty of assault. If the government does not charge him solely because they don’t like what you said about the guy’s wife, that would be denial of free speech.
Of course some countries have libel laws, to prevent FOC from allowing people to just lie and defame other people without consequence. So if somebody, for example, lied about your father being part of the plot to kill JFK, you could sue them for defamation of character. Some people might deal with that situation differently…
We do have libel laws here, for when people say facts that are lies.