Some people suggest freedom of speech should be curtailed. I disagree. While I am not libertarian in the sense that I believe that property rights means that you can deny someone service on the basis of some arbitrary characteristic you’ve chosen to single out, I believe that denying the right to free speech goes too far down the lines of thought policing. If a society goes down that path, it’s a slippery slope which moves the Overton window to further acceptability of oppressing whatever views are not politically acceptable at a given time, and that means one day it could be you or me who no longer have the right to express ourselves, and I cannot countenance that. So yes, I will support free speech be it of religious hatemongers, holocaust deniers or Hone Harawira’s hatred, although I will not support any of them in their goals or them having an impact on people beyond their free expression.

Furthermore, I would rather a person be able to say their views than not, because at least in that sense I know whether or not I want to know them or give them my business, be their friend, associate with them and so on.