Thread:Comments:Internet security firm to donate revenue to charity after Anonymous protest of Westboro Baptist Church/Does no one see that WBC is the good guy in this story?/reply (13)

Thank you for reading Snyder v. Phelps (2011).

>> An "activist"? No, you're being an apologist for Westboro.

This is just more name calling. It is disrespectful and distracting.

>> That does not make what they do any more-acceptable.

What makes it acceptable is that this is a contest between those who would speak and those who would silence them. In the U.S., more than in any other country in the world, it is recognized in law, if not by the general population, that the freedom to speak and for all to hear what would be spoken is the freedom upon which our entire system of liberty, justice, and self government is built. It is this logic that compels us, in the U.S., to say to those mourners, "Be strong. Stand strong.  You, like us, must tolerate this speech, because speech cannot be silenced."

> They are a hate group

That is debatable. Even if it is true, it is irrelevant. In the U.S., speech that is motivated by hate is fully protected, as it should be. Creating a "hate speech" exclusion would have the practical effect of gutting the First Amendment of much of its protection of controversial speech.