Fish (and Waldron) on "The Harm in Free Speech"

Stanley Fish's recent NYT column about Jeremy Waldron's new book, The Harm in Hate Speech, is worth a read.  It is a theme of my own Freedom of Speech course that, too often, our free-speech doctrines and rhetoric depend too much on two premises (sometimes stated, sometimes not) which are, at least, contestible:  First, that "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me"; and, second, that (see New York Times v. Sullivan) it's just "part of the deal" -- one that comes necessarily with living in a free society -- that we have to protect hateful, mean, harmful speech.  In fact, speech can cause harm (it's just that we think the harms it causes either "don't count" or are "worth it" for the benefits of a libertarian free-speech regime) and the "costs" of free speech are not spread equally among those who allegedly benefit from it.  Now, having said this, I still basically endorse a libertarian approach to free speech, especially in contexts like campaigns and elections (where regulations that are dressed up as efforts to fight corruption or prevent negative campaigning or equalize the playing field etc. are, in the end, pretty transparent efforts to advantage one's own "side" of the debate).  Still, I think Waldron's book, and reminder, are important.