Reply #25: if America is in danger of sliding down a slippery slope right now .. it would be the slippery slope

[Douglas Carpenter]

of anti-Muslim hysteria being pumped up by demagogues across the country and anti-Muslim hatred becoming completely mainstream producing consequences of nightmarish proportions for the country and the whole world.

I cannot compare this with burning the flag, because there simply is no danger of America being swept up into anti-American hysteria.

I cannot even compare it with KKK rallies or Nazis marching, because there simply no danger whatsoever of America at this time being swept up into pro-Nazi hysteria.

There is a real danger of anti-Muslim ethnic and religious hysteria sweeping the nation.

In the world of the Ivory Tower abstract principles it is all well and good to promote this as a free speech principle. And if their freedom of speech carried no more resonance than a Revolutionary Communist Party member burning the flag or Nazis publicly idolizing Adolph Hitler - then let the ACLU file their briefs and let liberals and progressives defend this principle.

But we live in a real world, a dangerous world and dangerous times were anti-Muslim hysteria is being whipped up and the consequences of this hysteria are dire for both the country and the whole world.