Even Speech We Hate Is Protected Speech

In the aftermath of Charlottesville, the Left has recast conservative speech as that most reviled of epithets: "Hate speech." Terms such as "neo-Nazi," "white supremacist," and "alt-right" are being blended into "right-wing" and even "conservative," depriving them of all meaning. The liberal media is all-too-eager to throw about "conservative" and "alt-right" as indistinguishable synonyms.

These lazy smear tactics have real consequences. In late August, the city of San Francisco shut down a "Patriot Prayer" rally after the left-wing group "By Any Means Necessary" — which has been involved in numerous violent confrontations nationwide — vowed to disrupt the event. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee defended his decision to shut down the rally, claiming it would hurt residents. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi went so far as to condemn the rally as a "white supremacist" event.

But they forgot to do their research. Patriot Prayer is organized by Joey Gibson, a Japanese-American who publicly "disavows racism and hatred." Gibson later spoke in nearby Pacifica with a handful of supporters, including several African-Americans.

In other words, San Francisco's mayor chose to use armed police at taxpayers' expense to prevent a Japanese-American from holding a peaceable protest because violent thugs threatened to wage war. In the Left's eyes, being a "patriot" is synonymous with Nazism.

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