Ann Coulter: Spreading Hate or Freedom of Speech?

The other day I was eating lunch and talking to my dad about politics and world events, when he told me something that I found deeply disturbing. Ann Coulter, a prominent Republican pundit for the extremely right-wing Fox News, had recently come to Canada to speak at universities across the country. In her addresses to the students, she argued against allowing people of middle-eastern descent on to airplanes since they apparently pose a safety risk, and told one middle-eastern student who asked how she should then travel to take a magic carpet or camel instead. She went on to make other claims, such as how great the world would be if everyone was white, conservative and Christian, and defends these abhorrent comments by stating that she was only joking. The subsequent debate centred around her right to say these things under freedom of speech, and got most people thinking and talking, including myself. Does someone have a right to say what they please, free of persecution, if the things being said are hurtful to many in society? To what extent do we apply freedom of speech to others and ourselves?

First off, let me just say that, while I believe in freedom of speech, it should have its limits within the bounds of a caring and tolerant society. People should indeed be free to say things as they please and express themselves to others, but when these things threaten to hurt others, the limit is fast approached. There's a very fine line, after all, between free speech and hate, and to allow someone like Ann Coulter to spread her racist views under the tenets of free speech would be to invite hatred into our nation. No one would dare say that Adolf Hitler had a right to preach the systematic annihilation of 6 million Jewish Europeans during the Second World War. The argument made against this is that Hitler had the military means to back up his hate and actually kill people, while Coulter is merely using her words, but as any survivor of verbal abuse knows, words can often stab and cut more sharply than the sharpest knife or sword.

Maybe I'm being a little harsh. After all, should we not all be allowed to listen to Coulter speak, and then come to our own conclusions regarding what she has to say? This is probably a very reasonable idea, since to most people her ideas are utterly reprehensible, and she has certainly be torn up quite efficiently in interviews with celebrities such as Bill Mayher. The thing is though, is that Coulter is a public face in the media, and such people have enormous sway over the minds of the masses in our society, whether for good or ill. This is an immense power to be wielded by any organization, let alone one person, and in such a situation, one must be careful not to overstep the bounds. If there's one thing that Spider-Man: The Animated Series taught me while growing up its that with great power must come great responsibility. Freedom of speech is such a power, it is only too obvious that Ann Coulter does not have the responsibility to match its use.