The Bill of Rights is probably the most important part of the Constitution, with the First Amendment undoubtedly being the most important one. People overwhelmingly agree freedom of speech is necessary for a democratic society. However, have we really ever collectively asked ourselves why we value freedom of speech so highly? And more specifically, why the founders of America believed it was necessary to give our nation the best chance of long-term success?

We might think that the reason is a given, but clearly, there are clashing views about what value certain paradigms of freedom of speech offer. Since later this month, UA will host Jared Taylor, a speaker who has said that black people are not capable of sustaining civilization on their own because they are biologically inferior to whites, we must seriously take a look at the status quo for speech.

“On Liberty” by John Stuart Mill was published well after the adoption of the Constitution, but the ideas imparted in it are certainly embodied in our founding document. “On Liberty” gave us the timely term “tyranny of the majority”, basically positing that we should never discount an opinion that is in the minority because new, potentially better ideas will always start out as unpopular. Mill believed that you should be able to say whatever you want as long as it doesn’t endanger others. But Mill also believed that bad ideas would eventually disappear from society through collective understanding and debate. This is the part of freedom of speech some want to ignore.

To contextualize Mill’s perspective in today’s society, we have, and have always had, a lot of people in America who say really ignorant things. However, the government should not police ignorance. Even though it may be detrimental to social progress, trying to regulate damaging opinions would set a terrible, totalitarian precedent.

The government has to stay within these limits, but do we? Why should we as a society, who do not have the potential to become autocratic actors on our own, tolerate regressive speech simply because people have the ability to speak?

We should not give a platform to all opinions. We must only give a platform to non-destructive opinions, and isolate opinions that sow divisiveness and inefficiency into our world so that they can fade from our society like Mill believed they should.

So this brings us to Jared Taylor. Students for America First, the group that invited him, have argued he should be allowed to speak because we need to hear all opinions. That is an empty and overly-vague justification that you could use for literally any person on the planet. We should not give someone a platform to publicize their positions simply because they have opinions.

If SFAF wants to argue that freedom of speech necessitates the need for Taylor to speak, then they have to believe there is constructive value in the opinions that he is offering. Taylor’s views, however, only hurt our country. The notion that we should all live in culturally and ethnically homogeneous societies because different races have drastic biological and intellectual differences is quite literally Nazi science. Nothing less. Jared Taylor wants to push America back into the 1700s. There is no reason we should let him.

The University has a legal obligation to allow Jared Taylor to speak. However, the best thing we can do now is ignore him. SFAF has implored those who disagree with Taylor to come to the meeting, but do not take their bait. Taylor’s opinions are not worth engaging.

Ideological diversity and freedom of speech are incredibly important, but ideological diversity does not mean considering every opinion that exists. Ideological diversity is taking in new, different ideas and contrasting them with others.

There is nothing new that can be learned from the regressive ideas of Taylor. He is trying to drag our society back into the abyss of ignorance. Freedom of speech should push us towards a greater future, not back to a dark period of our history. 

Paul Bousquet is a sophomore majoring in economics. His column runs biweekly.