I wouldn't say it has failed, but succeeded. The framing of the "marketplace of ideas" has really always been about paving over power dynamics and justify continuing harm by appealing to something external. In your marketplace of ideas, the hundreds of abstract individuals that are hararassers are equally as valid as one abstract individual just trying to live their life. It's working as intended.
It might be more accurate to say that the marketplace of ideas isn't all it's cracked up to be. It has failed to be the utopian dream some hoped it would.
That is the exact opposite of what I'm saying. Saying the market place of ideas was an utopian dream that failed is like saying the divine right of kings was an utopian idea that failed. At best, it is something people were conned into agreeing with.
These ideas weren't invented out of thin air, but to defend things that are hard to defend on their own merits. And just as the devinity of kings mysteriously only brought rights and no responsibilities, it is equally telling that the only time the "marketplace of ideas" is ever brought is in the context of why we shouldn't be doing anything about all of the hate speech.
> These ideas weren't invented out of thin air, but to defend things that are hard to defend on their own merits.
No, they were invented to provide air for all things to be considered on their merits, and to defeat dogma and traditionalism. That it also allows bad ideas to get some air is not the purpose, but a necessary feature to allow the good but discriminated against ideas surface.
> And just as the devinity of kings mysteriously only brought rights and no responsibilities
Making nonsensical allusions between dissimilar things doesn't mean they are similar. A marketplace of ideas is exactly the kind of thing that allows the divinity of kings to be questioned and reconsidered in the first place, so equating them is particularly odd.
> it is equally telling that the only time the "marketplace of ideas" is ever brought is in the context of why we shouldn't be doing anything about all of the hate speech.
That the things that are considered but wrong generate a lot of noise continuously as they keep being wrong is not unexpected. The correct and or good things that eventually supplant the prior things stop making noise by nature of be accepted. Equality of races and sexes is something you get out of the marketplace of ideas, as well as race and gender superiority. Once upon a time, race and gender superiority was the accepted norm, and calls for equality were the loud complaints that people had to hear and decide whether to agree with. Eventually equality supplanted the prior norm, and we hear some noisy ideas about superiority. I doubt that will supplant the norm in the majority though, it's an obviously inferior situation for the majority than equality, because everyone is a minority depending on how you slice it.
