4 Comments for “Free Speech Is the Bedrock of Freedom”
posted by Edward TJ Brown on
I would generally agree that First Amendment has been a very valuable tool in defending the rights of LGBTQ Americans.
1. Freedom of Speech and Expression does not shield you from criticism and both the far left and far right are guilty of using cancel culture/political correctness when they see or hear something that offends their sensibilities.
posted by Agee on
Activists showing up at a public forum and shouting in unison nonstop to prevent a conservative, including a gay or lesbian conservative (or, really, just any critic of woke gender theory) so that the speaker can’t be heard, is not voicing criticism. It’s the opposite. It’s ensuring that contrary voices aren’t allowed to be heard. Because there is one woke truth and any criticism of the one woke truth is racist, sexist, transphobic, etc etc and that means it’s violence so silencing criticism is stopping violence. This is what they believe, and what you are defending.
posted by Edward TJ Brown on
Um, no I was not defending anything, except the 1st Amendment.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
As I’ve made clear over the 15+ years that I’ve been commenting on IGF, I am a firm believer that an open, unfettered marketplace of ideas is essential to democracy.
But I think that it is also important to keep in mind that the First Amendment applies only to government restrictions on speech.
Just as it is essential to restrict the government’s ability to clamp down on unpopular speech, it is also essential to restrict the government’s ability to clamp down on private individuals, companies and associations that, in a private, non-governmental capacity restrict/limit and/or refuse to provide a forum for speech that the individuals, companies and associations consider unacceptable.
As TJ points out, “both the far left and far right are guilty of using cancel culture/political correctness when they see or hear something that offends their sensibilities”.
We saw an example yesterday when Stephen posted “As a child, I think I’d have been scared witless if I had to be “entertained” up close by a drag performer in full regalia.“. We used to call them “church ladies” when I was a teenager. Now we call them “snowflakes” or other things.
We will have people of that ilk with us, always. But the government should stay out of it, entirely.
4 Comments for “Free Speech Is the Bedrock of Freedom”
posted by Edward TJ Brown on
I would generally agree that First Amendment has been a very valuable tool in defending the rights of LGBTQ Americans.
1. Freedom of Speech and Expression does not shield you from criticism and both the far left and far right are guilty of using cancel culture/political correctness when they see or hear something that offends their sensibilities.
posted by Agee on
Activists showing up at a public forum and shouting in unison nonstop to prevent a conservative, including a gay or lesbian conservative (or, really, just any critic of woke gender theory) so that the speaker can’t be heard, is not voicing criticism. It’s the opposite. It’s ensuring that contrary voices aren’t allowed to be heard. Because there is one woke truth and any criticism of the one woke truth is racist, sexist, transphobic, etc etc and that means it’s violence so silencing criticism is stopping violence. This is what they believe, and what you are defending.
posted by Edward TJ Brown on
Um, no I was not defending anything, except the 1st Amendment.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
As I’ve made clear over the 15+ years that I’ve been commenting on IGF, I am a firm believer that an open, unfettered marketplace of ideas is essential to democracy.
But I think that it is also important to keep in mind that the First Amendment applies only to government restrictions on speech.
Just as it is essential to restrict the government’s ability to clamp down on unpopular speech, it is also essential to restrict the government’s ability to clamp down on private individuals, companies and associations that, in a private, non-governmental capacity restrict/limit and/or refuse to provide a forum for speech that the individuals, companies and associations consider unacceptable.
As TJ points out, “both the far left and far right are guilty of using cancel culture/political correctness when they see or hear something that offends their sensibilities”.
We saw an example yesterday when Stephen posted “As a child, I think I’d have been scared witless if I had to be “entertained” up close by a drag performer in full regalia.“. We used to call them “church ladies” when I was a teenager. Now we call them “snowflakes” or other things.
We will have people of that ilk with us, always. But the government should stay out of it, entirely.