21) The tongue has power over life and death; those who indulge it must eat its fruit. Complete Jewish Bible: Pr 18:21
36) Moreover, I tell you this: on the Day of Judgment people will have to give account for every careless word they have spoken; 37) for by your own words you will be acquitted, and by your own words you will be condemned.” Complete Jewish Bible: Mt 12:36–37
I’ve got no problem with free speech, people should be able to say whatever they want. What I do have a problem with is ignorance, and the opinions that breed from ignorance and are despised by the majority of decent people.
People who are filled with hate actually need to be heard, so that their opinions can be brought down by public debate, and if the public doesn’t have the strength, will or intellect to add clarity to a situation be a rebuttal that educates those that hear it, that is a failure on the part of those that should defend what is right, and a triumph for those who proclaim what is evil.
This debate tells me that society is losing its mental capacity not only to ensure people get a proper education for those that fall beneath the net, because I believe many problems that manifest in hate speech are born of ignorance and reflect a mental deficiency which after generations who pass through that same conditioning can become a genetic flaw; but also, in the general level of education for those who do not fall below the net, and who do not indulge in hate speech, who are stunned and shocked but are somehow lacking the ability to formulate the speech to counteract hate filled language.
See the debate on Al Jazeera here