Banning Anti-Israel Speech Doesn’t Own The Left

Why you should not cheer the suppression of pro-Palestinian groups on campus

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is using STATE POWER for a very stupid reason again. He ordered state universities to ban a pro-Palestinian group because it supports terrorism. DeSantis plans to expand this move to cover even more campus critics of Israel. His administration banned BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction) and other anti-Israel efforts back in 2019. Earlier this year, he criminalized “hate leafleting” on people’s yards and on college campuses.

None of these efforts help our side. It’s always a bad idea to support efforts to suppress hate speech. The primary targets for hate speech bans will always be right-wingers, regardless of the intent. However, a lot of right-wingers think this is AWESOME. They’ve decided speech bans really benefit the Right and banning pro-Palestinian groups will destroy the Left. This is extremely stupid. 

The latest move concerns a rather unimportant campus group. Students for Justice in Palestine is obnoxiously left-wing. However, it is not responsible for anti-white racism on campus, nor are they the most vocal in this aspect. This is not Black Lives Matters or the ethnic studies department. Anti-whiteness comes from the institutions themselves, not pro-Palestinian groups. Banning this group does nothing for our cause, and it’s likely to not even hold up in court. Like most of DeSantis’s PR stunts, this measure stands on thin legal ground. A judge will not favor it.

Banning one student group doesn’t hurt the Left. DeSantis’s expansion will likely target anyone who dares criticize Israel on campus, creating another hate speech law in the state. The bill he signed earlier this year made it a possible crime for a non-student to go to a state university and spread views that people find “threatening.” This gives left-wing administrators the green light to punish outside speakers for their hate speech. DeSantis’s new effort could expand this provision to students, penalizing their hateful speech toward the state of Israel.

Some prominent conservatives want to take this further. Conservative legal commentator Andy McCarthy wants the deep state to eradicate anti-Semitism throughout the country. “This unabashed, virulent antisemitism is unacceptable in the United States,” he posted on X. “DOJ and FBI must start J6-style scorched earth probe, get all the video, and aggressively prosecute blatant civil rights crimes. Not enough to express regret. Indict.” This is complete madness. The last thing on earth we need is the deep state to be encouraged to persecute more Americans over constitutionally-protected speech. This is the tyranny you get with anti-Israel speech bans.

It’s hard to see how this helps the Right, but right-wingers vigorously defended DeSantis’s action in my mentions. There were two common arguments. 

One argument claims this move will destroy the campus Left. That’s false because it only targets an unimportant student group and doesn’t affect the administrators and professors who are responsible for imposing anti-white racism on higher education. Moreover, this is not a measure targeted at the Left. This is about limiting debate over a foreign policy topic. The pro-Palestinians aren’t being canceled because they’re anti-white or anti-America. It’s because they support one side in a faraway conflict that shouldn’t involve America. This would be akin to banning anti-Ukrainian speech. Americans have the right to argue over foreign affairs. It undermines our own ability to dissent from the imperial consensus to cheer on state suppression of pro-Palestinians.  Students and professors can still call whitey the devil as long they don’t bring up Israel.

Regardless of intent, measures targeting hate speech are more likely to hurt the Right than the Left, especially when left-wing bureaucrats are the ones interpreting the law. If DeSantis’s law was established as a precedent, it could justify Democrat governors ordering their universities to ban conservative groups because they support the terrorist MAGA movement. That’s not a ridiculous notion. The President of the United States thinks Ultra MAGA Republicans are literal terrorists. These are the predictable results of championing hate speech laws. 

The second, and far dumber argument, is that supporting free speech actually hurts the Right. According to these folks, ditching a commitment to free speech would allow us to DESTROY the Left. This is just silly. It’s critically important for the Right to maintain its ability to speak freely in public. The Left has most of the power in this country. Civil liberty protections restrain the Left’s ability to impose the total libtard state. Even if you oppose them on principle, free speech protections are a huge benefit to our side. We don’t want to end up like Canada or the UK where the government is able to eradicate right-wing thought. We are all aware that there is more persecution of our side than ever before. But we still have more free speech than anywhere else in the West, and that’s a privilege we should preserve.

Championing speech restrictions doesn’t benefit us. We don’t live in a fantasy world where we can arrest libtards for calling Columbus Day “Indigenous Peoples Day.” Too many on our side dwell in the fantasy world where they can live out their delusions of power rather than coming to terms with the real world. While talk of wielding POWER and CRUSHING OUR ENEMIES gets you retweets, it makes you sound like a cartoon villain to regular people. It’s also delusional because we don’t have that ability. Gaining power requires us to have free speech. When free speech is allowed to thrive, we dominate. Just look at the state of X (formerly Twitter) under Elon Musk. Now with many of the old restrictions gone, conversations that would’ve once resulted in permanent bans get the most interaction on the website. We make more people aware of our views than ever before. It proves when free speech is protected, right-wing views prevail. We don’t need to worry about Palestinian protesters when we’re allowed to speak freely.

It’s more persuasive to stand up for free speech than to sound like conservative Shredder. Protecting civil liberties remains popular in America–throwing people in jail for their personal views is not.

The Right should remain consistently pro-free speech. This doesn’t mean we should oppose bans on critical race theory and gender ideology in education, or that we should worry when horrible leftists lose their jobs over their politics. It also doesn’t mean we should be “afraid” of using state power when the opportunity arises. It just means we shouldn’t support efforts that will come back to bite us in the ass. 

Hate speech restrictions are bad and primarily hurt the Right. We should always oppose them.