Some can’t grasp why, if we restrict so many forms of speech, we don’t also restrict hate speech. Racist hate speech has been linked to cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and requires complex coping strategies. These negative physical and mental health outcomes — which embody the historical roots of race and gender oppression — mean that hate speech is not “just speech.” Hate speech is doing something. Instead of characterizing racist and sexist hate speech as “just speech,” courts and legislatures need to account for this research and, perhaps, allow the restriction of hate speech as do all of the other economically advanced democracies in the world. They will insist that protecting hate speech is consistent with and even central to our founding principles.

Source: Los Angeles Times June 21, 2017 11:03 UTC