The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
"Don't Cut the Rattle Off of the Rattlesnake—the Silence Is More Dangerous to You than to the Snake"
I actually follow Justice Holmes in recognizing the potential benefits of speech restrictions. Among other things, while it's hard to estimate the likely consequences of any particular statement going forward, looking backward we can see that virtually every ideological crime (whether committed by a solo offender, a group, or a government) stemmed in part from some sort of political or religious speech. If only we could prevent that, without causing all sorts of other problems ….
My view, though, is that on balance attempts to restrict the expression of bad views generally do more harm than good; and the quote in the title expresses well one of the many forms of such harm. (The earliest use of the quote I found is from 2018, by Robert Graboyes, though I noticed it because of this more recent post of his.)
