Tuesday, February 25, 2014

How To Handle Speech You Don't Like

We on the right believe that the antidote to (free) speech you don't like is more (free) speech of your own; if your ideas are good enough they'll win the day in the court of public opinion.

Church of Global Warming adherents don't agree with us:
I understand that many people are passionate about global warming and consider skeptics to be flat-earthers. Those who don’t like the arguments by Krauthammer, a Fox News contributor, should by all means criticize, dispute, denounce and otherwise go at him. That’s how debate takes place in a country with a vibrant media culture.

Instead, these folks believe that censorship is preferable. Why engage Krauthammer when they might just be able to employ pressure tactics to silence him? And what’s the difference between this and shouting down a speaker at a town hall?

Krauthammer told me the petition-signers “showed up just in time to make precisely the point I made in the column.”

When it comes to free speech, he says, “they don’t even hide it anymore. Now they proudly want certain arguments banished from discourse. The next step is book burning. So the question of the day is: Can you light a Kindle?

“Is there anything more anti-scientific than scientific truths being determined by petition and demonstration?”
That last question is a great one-liner.

4 comments:

maxutils said...

if you want to silence Krauthammer, just let him talk ... not only could he put his audience asleep within 10 minutes, if not himself as well... no need to shout him down

Anonymous said...

His comments too cerebral for you , Max?

maxutils said...

Not at all. In fact, I tend to agree with him a fair amount of the time, and he usually backs up his points fairly well ... my knock was about him pooling people to sleep-- which stems not from the fact that he is obviously a smart man, but rather that he speaks wit an expressionless, emotinless, motionless, monotonous drone that causes me to wonder why anyone would want to go see him as a speaker. He would also drive me nuts as a psychiatrist, his past calling -- which is likely why it's his past calling. I think he would make an astounding undertaker ...

maxutils said...

But, thanks for the completely anonymous dig ... those are the best kinds.