Talking the Talk
A few months ago, I wrote that Sarah Palin and other Tea Party darlings were fanning dangerous flames with their violent imagery, but that they were within their First Amendment rights to do so.
I also predicted the public would lose its sympathy for Tea Partiers after an event like Tucson's assassination attempt.
It's too soon to say whether my prediction will come true. However, it is clear there's been a backlash, in the form of calls for "civility." I'm opposed to those calls.
It's not that I'm opposed to civility. I'm not. Civility is greatly underrated.
But the principle of free speech is a foundation of this country. The way to protect against speech you don't like is not to tell people to shut up. It's to make a convincing argument why they are wrong.
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I also predicted the public would lose its sympathy for Tea Partiers after an event like Tucson's assassination attempt.
It's too soon to say whether my prediction will come true. However, it is clear there's been a backlash, in the form of calls for "civility." I'm opposed to those calls.
It's not that I'm opposed to civility. I'm not. Civility is greatly underrated.
But the principle of free speech is a foundation of this country. The way to protect against speech you don't like is not to tell people to shut up. It's to make a convincing argument why they are wrong.
[more]
Labels: communications, Congress, Constitution, Daily Camera, First Amendment, free speech, media, Obama, Palin, politics, terrorism
posted by insomniac | 12:35 PM
1 Comments:
Mike,
Where have you been the last 10 years? Don't you remember radio talk show hosts (Randi Rhodes) calling for G. Bush's assassination? Or the many posters at anti-war rallies showing the shooting (stabbing, burning, beheading, etc.) of Bush? Or the New York "art" galleries featuring "kill Bush" exhibits? Or the movie about the same, "The death of a President"? (Hmm -- How do you suppose the reaction would go if that movie were remade today depicting the killing of a black president? Doesn't take too much imagination to realize that it wouldn't be dismissed as "just art" like last time. Of course, it's impossible for any normal person to imagine Palin, or any Tea Party group doing such a thing.)
These are the same people who now call for "civility" -- apparently they have had a conversion experience brought about by a leftist crazy shooting a Congresswoman.
Strangely, they have mostly directed their ire at people who support the Constitution and have remarkably peaceful rallies, instead of the other fans of Das Kapital and Mein Kampf, like the Arizona shooter.
Perhaps you weren't paying attention to the attacks on Bush, so here is a compendium of hate attacks on Palin and other conservatives that happened recently: http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/10/the-progressive-climate-of-hate-an-illustrated-primer-2000-2010/
It is by no means a complete list.
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