The restrictions on speech in europe don’t seem to be stopping the rise of organized, deadly fascist groups there, though. So I don’t know if europe is really the poster child for successful policy in this case.
White supremacy in the US isn’t thriving because the courts won’t censor people enough. It’s thriving because America is literally built on white supremacy and is racist to the core. Was government-protected speech key in the advancement of slavery? Segregation? The War on Drugs? Gentrification/mass displacement? It was not. Because all of those regimes have been supported and reinforced by the political and economic establishment. Those speaking in favor of those things did not need their speech protected by the courts, because it was protected by money and power. There are always exceptions, but generally speaking, the courts have been the last resort of those opposing money and power.
More general thoughts:
If we understand that the US is fundamentally white supremacist, why would we think the government could be trusted to legislate restrictions on speech? New powers to regulate speech granted for the purposes of disempowering white nationalists will inevitably be repurposed to repress anti-racists. Knowing what we do about America, why should we expect anything else?
Some might say “think about today, we’ll deal with the unintended consequences tomorrow”. But it will take a tremendous mobilization of people to change the precedents set now. And if we can make that kind of mobilization - if we really have the power to bend the government to our will in this way…why not just mobilize now and deal with the fascists ourselves? Why this fixation on empowering the government to handle this for us? They cannot and will not protect us from fascism, only we can do that.
