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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   29642 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 13, 2023

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I think the problem with “just wait until they actually do it” is that it essentially requires an omniscient government. The level of spying on civilians needed to know if I’m going to commit any crime is pretty high.

I would regulate calls for jihad much like I’d regulate any other exhortation to commit a crime. We don’t allow someone to advocate for breaking the law. I can’t get on Twitter and call for the death of a celebrity you’re mad at. Likewise calling for the bombing of buildings, death of groups of people, and other criminal activities should be illegal.

I think the problem with “just wait until they actually do it” is that it essentially requires an omniscient government.

...Or a heavily-armed populace, which we have.

Others have noted that the speech you think should be illegal is not, in fact, illegal.

I don't think you're correct. My understanding is that only speech which advocates imminent lawless action is illegal in the United States. You can absolutely advocate for genocide, say that a celebrity should be executed, and that someone should bomb this particular building, and no one will arrest you.

Absent a real threat of imminent lawless action, all the examples of obviously-banworthy speech you mention are (at least in the US) protected by the 1st amendment. So in the US, regulating calls for jihad much like other exhortations to commit a crime means not regulating it at all, except in the rare case for a call for jihad against X where X is sufficiently specific to meet the imminent lawless action standard.

Looking at politics rather than law, whether vague or remote exhortations to commit a crime should be default-banned (the "stochastic terrorism" theory) or default-legal (the US status quo) is pretty much at the edge of the Overton window on free speech. Add culture war toxicity, and it isn't surprising that this topic generates a lot of heat and not much light.

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