A poster on the metro

"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously," the American politician Hubert H. Humphrey said. Neither does it oblige one to offer a platform to the speaker in question, one might add.

That essentially means legislative tolerance for all opinions, including racist speech, but also a fierce counterargument wherever these opinions are expressed.

It also means that this newspaper, for example, is not obliged to publish an article promoting white supremacy.

It is safe to say that the lies propounded on the "pro-life" posters on the metro - which the Transport Ministry took down earlier this week after deeming them an affront to women's rights - are not as offensive as some other material about the "nature" of Jews and the supposed supremacy of the Arian race that regularly circulate on the internet. They are still lies,...