Dangerous Speech
J. Woodford Howard · Philosophy & Public Affairs · 2019
On December 2, 2015, a husband and wife walked into an employee Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, and began shooting their semi-automatic rifles, killing 14 people.In his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee a week later, the FBI director assured senators that the couple were not members of any established terrorist organization.Instead they were inspired by "consuming poison on the internet"specifically, through exposure to the normative arguments of the extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, whose YouTube videos advocated the duty to kill Americans. 1 On March 15, 2019, a man entered two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people.He was radicalized online, partly by a widely available manifesto written by the Norwegian white supremacist Anders Breivik, who himself had murdered 77 people in 2012."We are against Islam," the manifesto announces, which "poses a mortal danger to the West," arguing that unless violent resistance is undertaken against Muslims-reviving the struggle begun in the Crusades-all non-Muslims will be enslaved.Encouraging violent attacks on civilians, the manifesto teaches that "it is better to kill too many than not enough, or you risk reducing the desired ideological impact of the strike."The manifesto clarifies: "It is not only our right but also our duty to contribute to preserve our identity, our culture and our national sovereignty by preventing the ongoing Islamisation." 2 For all we know, had these individuals not encountered websites and online videos that spewed hate and encouraged terrorism, they would not have decided to become murderers.For all we know, had they not been incited by people peddling 1 Al Baker and Marc Santora, "San Bernardino Attackers Discussed Jihad in Private Messages, F.B.I.Says," New York Times, December 16, 2015; Greg Miller, "Al-Qaeda figure seen as key inspiration for San Bernardino attackers," Washington Post,