content: "I may hate the things you say, but i must defend to the death your right to say them."  Why?  Because that is the same freedom that allows me to respond with my side of the story,  which you will hate.  There is no reason to defend people's right to praise one another.  The only reason to protect the right to free speech is:  it preserves the right of people to say hateful things to people who are doing hateful things.  You will find that the only people who oppose others having the right to speak are people who are DOING hateful things,  and KNOW they have no way to defend their actions. Edit:  Free speech is by definition hate speech. Eliminate "hate speech"  and you eliminate the ONLY REASON to protect free speech.