The Download of the Week is Hate-Speech Bans are at Odds with the Central Principles of Liberalism by Matthew Kramer. Here is the abstract:
In line with my 2021 book Freedom of Expression as Self-Restraint – albeit in a much shorter compass – this essay will argue against the moral defensibility of hate-speech laws like those in the United Kingdom and Canada and the Antipodes and most countries of western Europe. Such laws contravene the moral principle of freedom of expression, and therefore contravene one of the central principles of liberal democracy. After expounding the principle of freedom of expression, this essay explains why some hateful utterances can be prohibited in full compliance with that principle and without any hate-speech legislation. It then recounts how a system of governance should deal with hateful utterances that cannot properly be prohibited. Finally, the essay argues that hate-speech laws are profoundly degrading for any society in which they are adopted.
Highly recommended.