Recent events have featured large numbers of misguided people following a smaller group of bad actors who apparently think this country would be better off without the ethnic diversity that has made it successful.
This idea is foolish at best, but our First Amendment protects the free expression of such thoughts just as it protects the rights of those who think far more clearly.
However, one of the few exceptions to protected freedom of expression comes when a person utters what have been characterized as “fighting words.” They are “those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.”
Flying the Nazi flag, which has inexplicably become popular among the aforementioned bad actors and their misguided followers, fits squarely within this definition. Further, the behavior of these hate groups that fly the Nazi flag appears intended to inflict injury, emotional and otherwise, and almost invariably incites an immediate breach of peace.
This serves to bolster the already reasonable argument that, outside the context of an historical archive or museum, the Nazi flag, in and of itself, constitutes fighting words. It is time to call it what it is, fighting words, and shut down the demonstrations that insist upon rallying around this symbol of a failed and evil regime that was defeated over 70 years ago.
David Marshall
Northampton