This was my first time actually hearing RFK Jr. speak.
His voice was jarring at first because I had never heard it before, but after only a couple’s minutes of listening, his voice fell away as I continued to listen to his words.
I went on to watch several more clips from the hearings, and I’ll go on to watch more after I post this, but I have to say: I want to hear more that RFKJR has to say, even if I’ll likely disagree strongly with some of it.
Let the record show I’m also very impressed with what Mr. Connolly said during his initial time speaking on camera around the three hour mark.
But also: The ACLU used to defend Nazi’s right to free [hate] speech while simultaneously decrying their speech as abhorrent, because the 1st Amendment was that important to that organization at the time. I think it would be good to get back to that. To be super clear: Nazis are narrow-minded bigots. I don’t support them at all. I think they should all se the error of their ways and reform like a few have.
But the idea of the ACLU supporting the rights of even that sort of speech should be held up as the golden standard of free speech.
We have to protect the free speech of even the outliers at either extreme of the bell curve. As soon as we start truncating the tails of that curve, where does it stop?