I mean, to be fair, how many space Nazis did Luke force choke? None? Vader had punch cards to keep track. Every tenth force-choked-Nazi, he got a free latte in the Death Star canteen.
“Why not add one more restriction—curtailing hate speech—as many European democracies do?”
I can understand the (enforced) reluctance, considering the racial hatred that has dominated the USA since its inception. I would like to think the time has come. USA needs to grow up and put a leash on the racists.
This. Free speech absolutism is detached from reality. The government (rightly) restricts speech all over the place for the public benefit. A drug company can’t market a placebo as a cure for cancer. The FDA restricts that speech for the public good. A startup company can’t claim billions in profits that don’t exist to pump up their share price at IPO. The SEC restricts that speech for the public good.
The same reasons should apply to hate speech and instigation of violence.
I would like to believe that was likely to help but the people who are overtly waving swastika flags and the like make up a pretty small share of American fascism these days. The hatred and bigotry are still there but often coded in language that would be difficult to effectively regulate.
Case in point. Today’s fascists are mostly cowards who hide behind thinly veiled symbols and phrases that provide plausible deniability. Or at least enough deniability to make it hard to prosecute.
It’s hard to write meaningful laws dictating how and when it’s acceptable to make the “OK” symbol or put parentheses around someone’s name or wear a polo shirt with khakis or whatever oh-so-clever bullshit code they’re using any given week.
Glove form of brass knuckles is what those look like to me. Beige, though, why would such a thing be available in beige? There’s nothing “tough” about beige. It’s antithetical to “tough”, it’s bland, if not cowardly, as in fearful of actual colors…
A critical mass of Americans had to name the fascists for what they were before we could reach the point where “antifa” becomes a generic umbrella term for anyone of any ideological leaning who opposes them. It took a while, and the corporate media and Dem establishment still aren’t willing to call a fascist a fascist, but there are enough of us now.