New York Times opinion<\/a> column explains why shutting down conservative speakers on college campus is perfectly consistent with freedom of speech.\u00a0 The key is the kind of speech being shut down; i.e., speech that offends people. \u00a0This is not a new idea, it\u2019s a bad old idea dressed up in fancy new credentials.<\/p>\nYou see, some speakers say things that are simply is wrong, like denying the Earth is flat.\u00a0 We know the Earth is flat, so we know the speaker is wrong.\u00a0 We\u2019ve told Galileo so, repeatedly, but he keeps speaking the same falsehoods. \u00a0Speaking a falsehood once is a mistake but repeating the falsehood after being corrected makes it an intentional falsehood: a lie. \u00a0There is no right to speak a lie.\u00a0 Listening to lies and rebutting them repeatedly is tiresome and serves no public purpose; therefore, prohibiting the speaker from telling his lies is not a violation of his rights.\u00a0 Free speech, in this analysis, doesn\u2019t mean you can say what you think; it means you can say what I want to hear.<\/p>\n
Milton criticized the notion of intellectual \u201csafe spaces\u201d being more important than freedom of speech when he wrote: \u201cI cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and un-breathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.\u201d\u00a0 Areopagitica was written in 1644 but the battle is still being waged today.<\/p>\n
In Liberal minds, you already are free.\u00a0 You are free to criticize Trump in any way you choose.\u00a0 You can express your disgust with Conservatives in words or gestures.\u00a0 Your choice of interpretive dance to decry tax rate reductions will never be questioned. \u00a0Liberals will defend to the death your right to agree with the Narrative in your own special way.<\/p>\n
Reminds me of a joke Reagan told.\u00a0 The American says \u201cWe have free speech in America.\u00a0 I can stand in front of the White House and yell \u2018To Hell with Ronald Reagan.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 The Russian replies: \u201cThat\u2019s nothing.\u00a0 I can stand in front of the Kremlin and yell \u2018To Hell with Ronald Reagan\u2019 too.\u201d\u00a0 He still could, on any college campus.<\/p>\n
There was an episode of The Prisoner in which The Village held an art contest, no limits, express yourselves freely.\u00a0 Every painting and sculpture was an homage to the greatness of the dictator, Number 2. \u00a0Nobody thought it the least odd. It was completely sensible that they\u2019d take this opportunity to express their love of Number 2 in their own individual way.<\/p>\n
I wonder if modern Liberals could understand the joke Reagan told and that episode of the Prisoner were meant to be ironic, but Milton was not.\u00a0 Is there that much learning remaining to be found on campus these days?<\/p>\n
Joe Doakes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I was in a discussion about evolution with a group of liberals several years ago. \u00a0They were all demanding absolute fealty to the theory of evolution. \u00a0 I asked why. \u00a0They responded “it’s just weird that people are allowed to believe things that are such nonsense”.<\/p>\n
I replied “What difference does it make if the person refinishing your countertops is a young earth creationist, as long as your countertops get done?” \u00a0They phumphered something about it being important that people not completely “deny science”.<\/p>\n
To which I responded “Science? \u00a0You mean, like brain surgery? \u00a0 Something none of you “Science-based” people can do, but this utterly faith-based creationist <\/a>has mastered? \u00a0 Are you going to lecture him about science, or are you going to get your brain fixed?”<\/p>\nThe response had something to do with me being a misogynist or something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: New York Times opinion column explains why shutting down conservative speakers on college campus is perfectly consistent with freedom of speech.\u00a0 The key is the kind of speech being shut down; i.e., speech that offends people. \u00a0This is not a new idea, it\u2019s a bad old idea dressed up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62949,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62948\/revisions\/62949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}