re: #26 Dr Lizardo, The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla

I explained the driving ideas behind the TP’ers; Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, fundamentalist Christian eschatology, etc. to several of my students; most of them thought I was either joking or exaggerating until they started reading up on independently - they weren’t laughing then. They were horrified. The most common question to me was, “Can’t you ban them?” because that’s what would be done here in the Czech Republic. When I explain that, “No, really that’s not possible” they shake their heads in disbelief and more than a few have suggested we should seriously consider changing that.

The proposition that first amendment protection for all manner of speech, including political hate-propaganda on a massive scale, is compatible with a functional democracy is presently being severely tested.