Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

There were some rather elevated exchanges earlier on about Voltaire, which lifted the tone of the debate no end. While they were going on, I was rather reminded of John Stuart Mill, which shows how complicated these issues are. In his famous mid-19th century essay ““On Liberty””, which defined how many of us think about these matters, he gives a very nice example. He says that it is perfectly proper for people to go around saying that all corn dealers are thieves, but that it would not be appropriate to say that to an excited mob outside a corn dealer’s house. I am not sure that Mill is right, but that example does show the importance of getting these distinctions right.