Yes I saw that issue of the Enquirer at a grocery store and I thought, “right, next comes the N-word.” But it didn’t even occur to me (and it should have) that I could have made noise about it.

However, last night I happened to stop by a Safeway in or near Oakland California, and noticed that there was a big empty spot where the Enquirer would normally be. I was mildly puzzled but didn’t think much of it (though I should have).

So maybe someone had the guts to make the noise, and the manager agreed and pulled it off the shelf.

Good.

Because by now we’ve all also heard about the shooting in that pizza place in DC that’s the subject of some horrible conspiracy theories that have been promoted by various sleazy media outlets. That’s straight-up stochastic terrorism: stir up the hate and a random nut predictably drops out of the tree and goes Boom.

That’s the danger of hate propaganda. It predictably unleashes violent acts. Racist drivel against Muslims + favorable mention of torture = some nut decides to take matters into his own hands. It’s only a matter of time.

It should not be 1st Amendment protected speech, but between now and the day that happens, it’s up to us to remove as much of it as we can from places where the public might be exposed to it.

Next time any racist hate-spew shows up in the grocery check-out line, I’m going to step up and make some noise. Politely of course. As in, “if you were an 8-year-old Muslim kid and you saw this, you’d think your family were about to be taken to a concentration camp and tortured. We can’t have that in our neighborhood.”

Anyone who thinks free speech = the right to give someone nightmares, is welcome to put themselves at the receiving end of that and have the nightmares. What they don’t have the right to do is put someone else there. That’s cowardly, disgusting, evil, and immoral. And we will do our best to put a stop to it.

The first degrades the moral interests of society; the second upsets someone’s parents.

Not the same.

My point is I think they already have them.

No, let’s cover them with brown paper instead. And boycott their publishers.

We could make a list of all the publications we find offensive and demand they be covered with brown paper!

Something in its place would also, obviously, be sold.