ANTI-SEMITISM: GOOD FOR THE JEWS! That is what Eugene Volokh, a law professor at UCLA and blogger of The Volokh Conspiracy, writes in a piece that appeared in his blog and in The Wall Street Journal.

Personally, I am wary of arguments of the "if it didn't exist, we'd have to invent it" variety--which seems to be Volokh's implication.

Also, when defending free speech, it seems that free speech today is not the same as it used to be:

• Being provocative used to mean to provoke thought and the exchange of ideas--that idea has been cheapened to the point that the goal is nothing more than to provoke a reaction.
  
  
• When arguing a point, strategies of argumentation would challenge the other party to specify and argue relevancy--today, the first question to ask is whether what the other person is claiming is even true to begin with.

That is why the free speech argument, when applied to Anti-Semitic speech--especially when applied to campuses, often seems to come across as a cop out of responsibility rather than a statement of principle.

(And don't even get me started on the UN)

But read Volokh's entire argument.

Technorati Tag: Anti-Semitism and Eugene Volokh and Free Speech.