CNN Opinion asked a group of contributors to weigh in on the mass censorship of Alex Jones and InfoWars. One contributor was Rafia Zakaria, a “Muslim-American” author and columnist for Dawn newspaper in Pakistan and The Baffler.
Zakaria told CNN that she sees the mass deletion of InfoWars as “an important step in recognizing hate speech as a form of terrorism.”
“This new decision is a step forward in recognizing that hate outlets, such as InfoWars, are complicit in domestic terror, and a relief to Muslim-Americans, like myself, who have been the target of online assaults and threats.”
Nobody likes terrorism, do they? Well, if hate speech is a form of terrorism, why should we allow it? So, isn’t the banning of InfoWars really a good thing for society?
Far from it. This is nothing other than an assault on free speech. The issue is, however, there is no virtue in shutting down free speech. That’s why the idea of ‘hate speech’ was invented. It provides a way of silencing your opponent and claiming the moral high ground in doing so.
Call any opinions you don’t like hate speech, call hate speech terrorism, and voila! You’ve silenced your opponent without even having to engage with his arguments. No brains needed. Ideal conditions for the Left.
Woman from PAKISTAN is here to tell us we have a terrorism problem. https://t.co/le08EUQDZg
— Gavin McInnes (@Gavin_McInnes) August 8, 2018
Wouldn’t it be nice if all we had to worry about with radical Islamic terrorists was a little hate speech?
— Inez Stepman (@InezFeltscher) August 8, 2018
We are beginning to see what happens to people’s ability to think clearly rationally openly and critically when intersectionalism and the religion of the SJW takes over. The absence of critical self-awareness self-reflection and humility bodes horribly for the future.
— JDF (@DrDrJDF) August 8, 2018