Monday, October 12, 2009
Steyn's warning
As Mark Steyn implies in this warning, American conservatives really ought to be free-speech absolutists, because one day any available regulatory precedent will be used against them. Yes, that will mean that conservatives will need to defend the rights of people whose ideas they detest, but is that not the essence of the right of free speech? After all, no right is needed to guard the freedom of people who choose never to say anything controversial. The First Amendment is only directly valuable to people who say unpopular things.
CWCID: Glenn Reynolds.
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Oct 12, 10:41:00 AM:
Agree completely!! However, I don't ever remember any conservative assume the crazed lefty stance and in a shrill voice, shriek "You can't say that!!"
We disagree with the idiots but seldom, if ever, deny their right to speak their idiocy.
Do you or Steyn have examples where the good guys have claimed that the anti-American, ultra-left wingers among us couldn't say what they did, their multiple outright lies excluded, of course?
By Brian Schmidt, at
Mon Oct 12, 01:02:00 PM:
Glad to see Steyn supporting the same line as the ACLU.
Too bad though that he's much like Dick Cheney who (I'm guessing but seems likely) lost his opposition to gay marriage when one of his daughters ended up gay.
It's better if they can take an ethical position before it's a matter of personal protection.
By , at
Mon Oct 12, 02:32:00 PM:
Brian Schmidt, you haven't read Mark Steyn very much, I take it? He has never been anything but a free speech advocate, preferring ridicule of loopy ideas rather than banning expression. PJ O'Rourke is another of the same bent.
By 
Gary Rosen, at
Tue Oct 13, 02:17:00 AM:
The Steyn article as it reads is scary enough, but I strongly recommend that everyone read through the embedded link to the Anne Bayefsky article in the Weekly Standard:
http://tinyurl.com/ycdz4ma
It is appalling that the administration would so enthusiastically support restraints on free speech. Even the EU, for G-d's sake, tried to stand firmer than BO. This should be a *huge* issue.
And Brian ("I'm guessing but seems likely") you are simply ignorant and dishonest. I challenge you to read the Bayefsky article and then try to make an honest defense of the administration instead of your cynical non sequitur about Cheney and his daughter.
By , at
Wed Oct 14, 12:48:00 PM:
"It is not only the rights of the people whom you agree with, but also the rights of the people whom you vehemently disagree and find contemptible, that also need to be protected." (most likely not perfectly quoted)
John Henneman Sr. (Tigerhawk's Dad)
