Okay, so after taking a while to think on what’s happening in the United States, I’ve come to a conclusion:

Both the left and the right are correct in their interpretations of the First Amendment.

For the left: The first amendment doesn’t allow speech that could cause harm. Marching down the street with torches calling for violence? Yeah, that causes harm. Don’t do that.

For the right: The government cannot interfere with your right to say what you want. So yeah, say blacks are inferior or gays can’t marry or whatever. I may not like it, but I’ll defend your right to say it.

I’ve heard some say that if we censor this speech, we’re paving the way to the elimination of the First Amendment entirely. I’m calling BS on that. For one, we’re not calling for all speech to be punished. We’re only calling for the speech that incites riots and violence against marginalized groups to be censored.

Secondly, we have more than two hundred years of judicial precedence to show that the first amendment is alive and kicking. Sure, we may not agree with some interpretations of it, but it’s in no danger. Not even a executive order can eliminate that right, as Trump found when his executive orders were challenged in court.

By all means, stand up to racism. The first amendment only says that the GOVERNMENT can’t censor speech. We the people, as a civic body, bloody well CAN censor speech we deem inappropriate. The government can’t throw you in jail for calling blacks inferior, but we WILL call you out and shame you for it.