Being an Idiot is not a Crime

So I got up late this morning, grabbed a cup of coffee, and was generally feeling pretty good about myself and life — well, as good as possible for me, so over all that’s a plus — when I happened to go into Twitter and find Holocaust Denial was a Trending Topic.

“Okay, why the hell is that a trending topic?” I thought.

(For those of you wondering, a Trending Topic on Twitter is something that’s mentioned very frequently by multiple posters — enough to become a trend.)

It turns out, Facebook had allowed groups centered on Holocaust denial to be created on their site, and various people (including Mark Cuban’s brother) were calling for the groups’ removal. Much like recent debacles over Amazon accidentally removing listings for all books featuring sexuality (which means 99% of GLBT-centric books) and LiveJournal running an ad for National Organization for Marriage, the InterTubes were once again in a pitchfork and torch-wielding rage over people saying, posting, or believing stupid things.

*sigh*

Recently, one of the free local newspapers in my area ran an anti-gay editorial. The four-paragraph hate-rant was full of religious rambling and completely free of any logic, facts, or historical evidence to support the author’s claim that God created marriage, because, well, no supreme being did, in fact, create marriage. I could give you the historical evidence about marriage being a Church-instituted ceremony in the late middle ages to generate wealth after the selling of indulgences and other favorite money-making schemes became passe. I could point you toward books about the nature of human beings, which is evolved from a psychological proclivity to serial monogamy. I could use logic and reason to show how, even if you believe that homosexuality is a sin in your religion, you should still tolerate the difference of opinions between yourself and others and allow for human rights to be equally granted to all human beings, regardless of sex, gender orientation, sexual orientation, race, religion, or intelligence. I could even argue it from a religious perspective — let he who is without sin cast the first stone — and point out all of the other sins committed on a daily basis, by Christians, which are considered an abomination by the very same chapter that demonizes homosexuality (such as wearing a cloth made of a blend of more than one fiber!)

I would do all of that, except there’s a notice at the bottom of the page which says the paper does not publish letters to the editor.

And that, dear readers, is where the difference between Facebook and the bigot in The Hamiltonian ends. Because when you put one opinion out there, and you leave no room for debate of that opinion, that newspaper or website is, in fact, endorsing that opinion. The Hamiltonian is, in fact, saying that it as a newspaper supports gaybashing and bigotry. So I’m writing a letter demanding they stop putting their newspaper in my mailbox because of the are a hate-filled tabloid.

What I am not doing is demanding a retraction, demanding an apology from the author or even for the author to be fired. He has a right to free speech, and private companies have a right to publish what they want. It is not the right of the individual to dictate what speech can and cannot be published in a private area. It is not my right to demand a retraction. It is my right, however, to tell them to go fuck themselves and stop subscribing.

It is the same for Amazon and for LiveJournal. If you do not like their content, leave. Tell them why you’re taking your business elsewhere, and leave. There are alternatives — Barnes and Nobel and DreamWidth, respectively. Take your business elsewhere if you do not like what they do or how they treat your group — and if you want to say, tell them that you’re regrettably leaving. Don’t make demands or create ultimatums — that’s what immature people do. Just take your business elsewhere and see what happens. In the case of both Amazon and LiveJournal, as soon as they realized what they’d done had upset their customers, they fixed the problems posthaste.

However, I’d point out, that in the case of Facebook, people threatening to leave, writing hateful letters, and otherwise tantrum is beyond unreasonable. Unlike Amazon and LiveJournal, where the questionable actions seemed to come from an internal source and therefore espoused the negative, bigoted beliefs, Facebook’s content in question is user created, and a group for Holocaust survivors, believers, apologists, etc. could just as easily be created to counter the information, to present truth to counter the lies, to balance the perspective so that an individual searching the term “Holocaust” could find all the information and make up their minds about it as an individual.

Oh, but people don’t LIKE that! There’s a general thread the connects conservative and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, atheists and Christians, and it goes like this: all people should only think nice thoughts, good thoughts, the thoughts that I approve. Hate speech and hate crime legislation is an example of this. The goal of crimes against bigoted, unintelligent, uninformed thoughts and speech is to keep all alternative opinions closeted, buried, to give the appearance of a uniform consciousness of society that is only good and benevolent. Alternative ideas must be buried, and those that are particularly disdainful removed from public sight.

Why?

When we bury ignorant hate speech, when we make bigotry a thought crime, we are giving credence to the paranoid belief of most extremists that they are a persecuted mass whose numbers would grow if they were not being deliberately and systematically oppressed by the Government.

When we bury hate speech, we are in direct violation of the very principles this country was founded upon — the idea that all speech, no matter how repugnant, was protected as long as you didn’t incite others to violence. Burying hate speech is possibly the least patriotic thing you can do.

When we add additional punishment to the sentence an individual receives for committing a crime because he was thinking thoughts that society deems incorrect and morally reprehensible, we are creating Thought Crimes. We are marching, in lock step, toward the dystopian future of 1984.

When we punish someone for thinking bigoted thoughts, we are only solidifying the thoughts in that person’s mind.

Hate speech and hateful thoughts will always exist; we cannot control or wipe away the ideas of the human mind. Someone will always think that homosexuality is bad, just as there are people today who believe that interracial marriage is immoral and wrong. Just as electing a black president did not officially end racism, censorship of those who deny the Holocaust will not end anti-Semetism, nor will it bring back the millions of people, Jews and gentiles alike, who were killed by the Nazi regime.

All censorship does is provide fertile breeding grounds for the ideas that are being censored.

When a publication endorses an opinion we do not like, we have the right to vote with our dollars to take our business elsewhere. When a publication allows equal time to all sides of an argument, we have the duty to support the enlightened side, not by bashing, censoring, or harming the opposing side, but by offering to debate with reason, by showing love and unwavering support for the human being that is behind the horrible ideas they spout.

My parents, I am embarrassed to say, are racists, especially my mother. She’ll even tell you as much, though she has a few black friends, “The good ones,” she says. She drops the n-word a lot when discussing matters of race. It was how she was raised, by parents who were authoritarian and for whom she still holds a child-like reverence. It has been a long, hard struggle for me to accept that I can still love my family for the good people they are and overlook the ignorance in which they live. When my mother makes a blanket generalization about black people, I have to stop myself from yelling at her, and instead look at her and say, “Now, you don’t really believe that’s true, do you? What about your friend Anna*? She’s a nice person, and she’s black, right?”

“Yes, but she’s one of the good ones.”

“Maybe they’re all ‘good ones’ and maybe the man that cut you off just now is just an asshole?”

She sulks and stops talking, possibly because she knows I’m not going to let her win this one, but possibly because she knows, in her heart, that I’m right.

I would urge everyone to treat those in the world who are complete fucking morons and believe that the Holocaust never happened, that gay marriage will destroy the world, that Arabs hate our freedom and will destroy America with the same compassionate argument. They are not always our mothers, but in a wider sense, in the sense of the human spirit, they are our brothers and sisters, and they need to be educated, the need to be encouraged to question the ignorant beliefs they hold. They should not be shouted at, pushed down, and forced underground where they can sew more seeds of hatred. We need to keep them on the surface, to prepare our counter arguments, to see what they’re saying and why they’re saying it so that we can present a reasoned, intelligent, and compassionate response.

Instead of shutting down the Holocaust deniers, let’s talk to them.

I know that reason and logic will always be anathema to some very hateful, very stupid, very ignorant people, but in censoring them, are we not stooping to their level, going to any length to “shut them up.” Are we, ourselves, not committing hate crimes by targeting our vengeance upon a specific group of people — the ridiculously ignorant — for no reason other than the fact that they will not listen to reason? And if we can’t shut them up, what next? Jail time? Forced re-education? Lobotomies for the haters? Fear is what breeds hate, and isn’t threats of silencing their voices at any cost just giving a real and logical fear to back up illogical ones?

Being an idiot is not a crime; we need to accept that and move on as a society. Maybe only when we can tolerate all thoughts — intolerant or not — and accept that not everyone is going to think nice, happy thoughts can we, as a society, make the appropriate steps toward ending hatred and bigotry in our society.