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people can think inwardly whatever stupidities they want, but once they articulate them in a public space---particularly in a debate-oriented space---there's a symmetrical right to criticize those stupidities.
in a democratic environment, there'd be an assumption that you'd be able to mount arguments in defense of those positions. because it is simply not the case in a democracy that anything goes. not in one that actually exists or existed. there are standards of argumentation. if what a citizen thinks is really fucking stupid and he or she were to argue it in the agora, that'd likely be the end of their influence.
so no, there really is no "right" to be racist publicly, or be stupid publicly, if by that you mean some "right" to not be criticized for being racist or being stupid.
there is a right to not be arrested for being stupid discursively. but a "freedom" from being criticised?
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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