In a country that values free speech, what do we do about Nazis in Texas taco shop? | Opinion

When do ideas become more than free speech and cross over into inciting hate-based violence?

We just saw a great example in Fort Worth of how hard it is to draw the line. A group dressed in Nazi-like clothing bearing swastika insignias dined at a Torchy’s Tacos in the Medical District. They also placed antisemitic material on dozens of vehicles at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, just one day after news broke that the terrorist group Hamas had started slaughtering innocent Jewish women, children and elderly people in Israel.

There’s never a good time to align with Nazis, but this might have been one of the worst.

In New York, Chicago, and on college campuses, rallies in support of Palestinians have broken out, and many have bordered on excusing or endorsing terrorism. In New York, a protester was seen holding up a phone bearing a screenshot of a swastika.

Perhaps in Fort Worth, the Nazi-clad group is just a bunch of ignorant teenagers trying to get a rise out of us old folk that have seen a few things. Perhaps it’s a group of militant young men who would like to incite a hate-based riot or even, an entirely antisemitic movement. We don’t know.

But we know that ideas have consequences. They can result in a free nation like America or a terrorist group like Hamas. They can result in the perpetuation of a 300-year old country that’s become a world superpower thanks to liberty and capitalism, or they can evolve into hate and bigotry that leads a terrorist group that beheads Jewish babies.

In some ways, a group of people dressed like Nazis represents free speech in America at its best and at its worst. If people can’t freely do this, we don’t really have the freedom of speech that our forefathers demanded. At its best, having freedom of speech allows people to embrace ideas that seem counter cultural, like throwing off a government that had perpetrated a “long train of abuses” on them.

But freedom of speech can also allow ideas and speech to evolve into something much worse. Violent mobs and terrorist groups do not evolve from nothing — they evolve from ideas that have taken deep root in a person’s soul.

As King Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun.

For decades, we’ve seen kids on college campuses supporting ideas they know nothing about, like communism, and we shrug: They’ll get it when they’re older. But sometimes ideas, or “free speech,” takes root in a person’s mind. It becomes a routine thought and then develops into a behavior and then action, including finding others who are like-minded. This is actually how an idea like “from each according to his ability to each according to his need” develops into full-fledged socialism that, as it turns out, causes entire countries to collapse when it’s really tried.

We’re seeing the intersection of this now in Israel, where Hamas, a terrorist organization, embarked on a prolonged killing spree. The death toll is now at 1,200 Israelis, most of whom are civilians. This is barbaric, pure evil. These detestable actions must be condemned. The ideas that led to them must be condemned: Antisemitism and other forms of bigotry and hate cannot stand.

Voltaire said, “I disapprove of what you say but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” To many, this is the American way. But we have become a naive, ignorant people if we cannot also see that some awful ideas take root and devolve into patterns of behavior that result in actual violence. Not thought crimes, not slurs, not smears, but actual crimes that result in mass funerals and an attempted annihilation of an entire group of people.

Texans must embrace free speech but also condemn bad ideas that lead to hate, bigotry and violence. Is it a person’s right to eat Torchy’s tacos in Nazi attire? Sure. Is it a good idea worthy of spreading? No.

It’s not hypocritical to support free speech and condemn Nazism, which resulted in the murder of millions of Jews and continues as we speak another form in Israel. All speech is free speech, but not all speech is right.

Do you have an opinion on this topic? Tell us!

We love to hear from Texans with opinions on the news — and to publish those views in the Opinion section.

• Letters should be no more than 150 words.

• Writers should submit letters only once every 30 days.

• Include your name, address (including city of residence), phone number and email address, so we can contact you if we have questions.

You can submit a letter to the editor two ways:

• Email letters@star-telegram.com (preferred).

• Fill out this online form.

Please note: Letters will be edited for style and clarity. Publication is not guaranteed. The best letters are focused on one topic.