What is the best way to foster society and resist hate?
In mid-October, Nadine Strossen, former President of the ACLU and lifelong feminist, spoke about why free expression—in all of its forms—needs to be protected.
In her first talk, Strossen spoke on the importance of protecting pornography. She touched on how many people use “pornography” to mean entirely different types of expression, why it’s not as dangerous as some may think, and how limiting pornography is both legally difficult and often counter-productive.
In her Strossen’s second talk, she focused more on free speech in general. She explained how the supposed conflict of “free speech” versus “hate speech” is overblown—often, the speech people are most concerned about is already appropriately regulated—and how hate speech regulations can foster more of it. Additionally, she spoke about how complex a problem this is—frequently, those who advocate for free expression on one issue will switch to attack it on the others—making holding on to the principle even more difficult. Ultimately, she believes only more speech can counter hate speech.
Many of the other students and I deeply enjoyed the topics. Strossen’s coming to Wabash and taking on these contentious issues has been a highlight of my semester.
