Racism is still free speech which sucks but the alternative is high censorship and fear
This is incorrect, and only serves those who target marginalized groups.
I wanna make it very clear that the conclusion that restriction of hate speech is a slippery slope for freedom of speech is not a given or universally held position
You can absolutely introduce laws prohibiting hate speech without introducing high censorship or fear. Many countries have laws prohibiting hate speech, including most European countries and a majority of, what Wikipedia calls, developed democracies.
Even countries that don’t have limits for hate inducing speech towards marginalized groups, with reference to the importance of freedom of speech, rarely have complete freedom of speech.
As an example, the US limits to freedom of speech include “fraud, child pornography, speech integral to illegal conduct, speech that incites imminent lawless action, and regulation of commercial speech such as advertising.”
The claim that intolerance to intolerance is dangerous, only serves the spread of intolerance.
The paradox of tolerance states that if a society’s practice of tolerance is inclusive of the intolerant, intolerance will ultimately dominate, eliminating the tolerant and the practice of tolerance with them.
Rosenfeld contrasts the approach to hate speech between Western European democracies and the United States, pointing out that among Western European nations, extremely intolerant or fringe political materials (e.g. Holocaust denial) are characterized as inherently socially disruptive, and are subject to legal constraints on their circulation as such,[13] while the US has ruled that such materials are protected by the principle of freedom of speech and cannot be restricted, except when endorsements of violence or other illegal activities are made explicit.
It all matters.
Acknowledging how society divide and conquer, seperate and atomize citizens into segregated social groups, often linked to immutable traits, is essential to combat capitalism and tear down class dividers.
There’s a reason bell hooks coined “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy”. These are interconnected oppressive systems. They strengthen and sustain each other, and one cannot be defeated without the others. Additionally; If you do not stand in solidarity with those who face a multitude of oppressive structures, they have less resources to fight the oppressive capitalist structures
Ignoring everything but capitalism is similar to white feminism ignoring everything but gendered oppression.
All women are not free until everyone is free.
All workers are not free until everyone is free
All black, indigenous, people of color and racialized minorities are not free until everyone is free
All LGBTQ+ people are not free until everyone is free
There is no workers’ liberation without women’s liberation without black people’s liberation without queer people’s liberation without disabled people liberation without…
You cannot mobilize the working class without addressing the very real, oppressive structures that have very real, negative impact on people’s lives.
Race isn’t real, and the idea that people are physically separated into racial groups is not real. That’s a human made, social construct.
But racism is real. Humans separating humans into different social groups based on the socially constructed idea of “race” is real. And the effects of racism is real. Different rights and treatment being allocated humans based on these social groups are real. And therefore, the shared struggles against structural oppression within these groups are very real - despite the basis of these social groups’ creation being a social construct
Not acknowledging the multitude of struggles and oppressive systems present in imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy makes it impossible to stand in true solidarity with fellow workers, across social groups. It’ll inevitably lead to reinforcing the unrecognized oppressive structures, and stand in the way of a united working class.