Opinion: Bring hate speech out into the open

To the editor: I agree with UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman that it’s desirable to have hate speech out in the open. Sequestration of hateful opinions does not stop their dissemination. (“Bigots at the gate: Universities shouldn’t duck the fight against white nationalism,” Opinion, Nov. 20)

Now that we have a more accurate idea of the extent of such views in this country, we can more clearly see the urgency of dealing with them in our schools and homes. We also have a unique opportunity to personally engage people by first listening to them and then expressing our opinions.

This might not change minds, but it may open them to alternative views.

Kathryn Kroger, Pasadena

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To the editor: A much bigger threat to democracy are those who refuse to accept election results, who shut down free speech and who demand special rules based on race and gender. That’s the arrogant left, which runs many campuses.

Gillman is so concern about democracies being “fragile” while he supports an academia that’s openly contemptuous of America’s system. Some professors hold low grades over the heads of students, publicly mocking any who dare to disagree with their radical agendas. University administrators tacitly approve such persecution, along with their phony alt-right paranoia and safe space idiocy.

If anyone’s guilty of McCarthyism, it’s this extremist mindset that’s hijacked education and turned it into indoctrination.

Pat Murphy, Pacific Palisades

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To the editor: Long before President-elect Donald Trump made hate speech presidential, we should have been extending invitations to all haters and granting them access to our every public venue. Just tell us your fears, we should have instructed.

If only we’d heard it all, we could have treated the hate before it had metastasized. We would have made attempts to educate against it everywhere. The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he didn’t exist.

Kevin T. Freeman, Huntington Beach

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