Its own best opponent

My friend and debate partner has said many times that the answer to nasty free speech is more free speech. The incident of Phil of Duck Dynasty and its aftermath prompted similar thinking from Rob Tisinai.

To recap: Phil, the patriarch of the clan featured on the TV show Duck Dynasty said some nasty things about us, about blacks, and about women. Tisinai has details. A&E broadcasts the show and, because of the backlash from GLAAD and HRC, quickly suspended Phil. The good-ole-boys cried foul and A&E relented.

Tisinai responds by saying he's "worried by the sort of attitude that says: Let’s create such an uproar that no person will dare say such things again in public, even if it’s what they really believe." The better response is to engage those comments in public and show how wrong and damaging they are.

Those who want to shun nasty speech ask about the harm to gay kids who hear it. Tisinai, who heard it growing up, replies that if the nasty speech is shunned in public it will be expressed in private. Gay kids will hear it and won't be able to hear our rebuttal. And they need to hear that rebuttal, not just media spouting off positive thoughts.

Tisinai lists three ways in which we need to trust ourselves.

1. The truth is with us. If we shut down debate our truth won't be heard.

2. The other side is its own best opponent. The more disgusting the comments -- the more we wish it wasn't said -- the more those in the middle say I don't want to be associated with that.

3. Bigotry runs deep. They are rarely bigots about only one category of people. We can show that comments against us are bundled with lots of other toxic views.

Tisinai concludes:

Our opponents’ only chance to defeat us is to keep us closeted, invisible, and silent. Our best chance to defeat them is to make sure everyone out there hears what they have to say. What a heartening moral truth that is.