A small business owner near where I live in rural, deep red Pennsylvania recently spent $150K to put up an electronic billboard with rotating messages of hate. The billboard was placed on a busy road that also serves as a school bus route, so that elementary school children would pass by it every day. The messages included rants against critical race theory (image above), attacks on same sex marriage, and even a sign comparing the FBI to the Gestapo, complete with swastika. After an outcry from local religious leaders, the swastika -themed message was taken off, but the other messages are still running.
In response, the local Democratic party put up a billboard across the street with a message of inclusion and tolerance. It seems that local bigots where outraged that somebody would dare to characterize the citizens of this county as welcoming and tolerant, and they started making death threats to the people who operated the billboard. The billboard was taken down after less than a week.
It is unfortunately not surprising that the same people who defended the messages of intolerance as ‘free speech’ were ready to use any means necessary, including violence, to suppress a message of inclusion.
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