It shows the power of social control. However some folks may whimper about what you're "not allowed" to do, nobody has ever been jailed, fined, or executed for racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or other hateful speech in the U.S. Yet social control minimized their use.
Now that we have a president who makes such thuggish pronouncements a virtue, they're back in full force. From the sheer speed with which they came roaring back, one can only conclude that so-called "conservatives" have always feared and hated non-whites, women, gays, &c., and were constrained in their expression of their terror and hate only by social control.
I see it as a good thing in the long run. Interestingly, it is corporate America that no longer tolerates such. Level a racist screed at a customer, and you're gone. (Before the righties start whimpering about "punishment," I'll point out that you have no right to a job. That's a principle righties fought fiercely for for decades.)
One can hope that the worm has turned, and that this is the last gasp of the terrified haters. But that hope alas! will probably be in vain. Every generation produces its fair share of emotional defectives.