Ignorance the bigger problem

From Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary,'' in GoLocal24.com:

Very, very few Americans are sympathetic to the “Alt Right,’’ the KKK or neo-Nazis. Thus the huge “counter-demonstration’’ against the  Aug. 19 “Free Speech Rally’’ in Boston  was ridiculously overwrought.

The “Free Speech Rally’’ was conducted, such as it was, by an outfit called the Boston Free Speech Coalition, which says it’s “a coalition of libertarians, progressives, conservatives, and independents.”  The counter-demonstrators tried to label the coalition as a bunch of extreme right wingers and effectively quashed their freedom of speech. I have no idea what the real views of the members of the coalition might be. But I do know that their First Amendment rights were thwarted by this trendy counter-demonstration against “hate,’’ as if you could ban something that everyone feels from time to time.

The biggest problem in all this is not bigotry but massive ignorance about American constitutional rights and American civics and history in general. (Certainly if the Alt Right or outright fascists took over they’d curb or prohibit free speech themselves and knock a lot of heads in the process.)