Category: Free Speech
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George Orwell on the Renegade ‘Liberal’
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Here is the great Orwell from 1945 in The Freedom of the Press: One of the peculiar phenomena of our time is the renegade Liberal. Over and above the familiar Marxist claim that ‘bourgeois liberty’ is an illusion, there is now a widespread tendency to…
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What Happened to Molly Norris?
A repost from 16 September 2010: Cartoonist Molly Norris Driven into Hiding by Muslim Extremism Story here. Among the great religions of the world, where 'great' is to be taken descriptively not normatively, Islam appears uniquely intolerant and violent. Or are there contemporary examples of Confucians, Taoists, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, or Christians who, basing themselves on…
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Camille Paglia on Free Speech and the Modern Campus
A rich, historically informed article. Excerpt: Let me give just one example of political correctness run amok in campus women’s studies in the U.S. In 1991, a veteran instructor in English and women’s studies at the Schuylkill campus of Pennsylvania State University raised objections to the presence in her classroom of a print of Francisco…
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Jason Riley, Conservative Black, Disinvited from Campus
For a long time now, leftist termites, aided and abetted by cowardly administrators and go-along-to-get-along faculty members, have been busy undermining the foundations of the West, including the universities. Here Jason Riley reports on an outrage that affected him personally. Excerpts: Nor is it merely classroom instruction that leftists tend to control. Liberal faculty and…
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The Left Might Get Trump Nominated
So argues Dennis Prager. For Trump alone among the Republican candidates is willing to stand up to the thuggishness of the Left. The other candidates including Ted Cruz are blaming Trump and his rhetoric. The latter is admittedly less than presidential and Trump is well-advised to tone it down. But which is worse, some harsh…
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Fascists of the Left Against Free Speech
It is standard operating procedure for leftists to shout down their opponents, throw pies in their faces, and otherwise disrupt their events. Thuggery is a leftist trademark. But when there is the least bit of push-back, these contemptible cry bullies shout 'fascism'! The double standard once again. Free speech for me, but not for…
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You Think You Have Free Speech?
I'm no monarchist, neither am I mad, but the following from The Mad Monarchist is on target. (HT: London Karl) You think you have free speech? Depends on your politics or your skin color or your religion. A French magazine can publish numerous cartoons mocking Christians, a few mocking Jews but one mocking Islam gets…
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The First and Second Amendments
There is an old saying which is perhaps now out-of-date. If liberals took the Second Amendment as seriously as they take the First, they would demand that gun ownership be mandatory. The point of the jibe was to highlight the absurd extremes to which liberals take the First Amendment. But now the First Amendment is…
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Is Free Speech Dead in Britain?
Once again I pinch myself. Am I awake or am I dreaming? It's too bad the mother country is collapsing under the weight of its own political correctness. John Stuart Mill must be rolling around in his grave. My endorsement of Mill is measured, however: it seems to me that he takes toleration to an…
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There is Nothing Liberal About Contemporary Liberals
Three examples from Damon Linker: Brendan Eich resigned as the chief executive of Mozilla, a company he helped found, after gay rights activists launched a boycott against the company for placing him in a senior position. Eich's sin? More than five years earlier, he donated $1,000 to the campaign for California's Proposition 8, which sought…
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The Decline of the Culture of Free Discussion and Debate
Professor of Government Charles Kesler in the Spring 2015 Claremont Review of Books laments that "The culture of free discussion and debate is declining, and with it liberty, on and off the campus." He is right to be offended by the new culture of 'trigger warnings' and 'microaggressions,' but I wonder if his analysis is…
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On Advertising One’s Political Correctness
I am reading an article on some arcane topic such as counterfactual conditionals when I encounter a ungrammatical use of 'they' to avoid the supposedly radioactive 'he.' I groan: not another PC-whipped leftist! I am distracted from the content of the article by the political correctness of the author. As I have said more than…
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A Dog Named ‘Muhammad’
There is a sleazy singer who calls herself 'Madonna.' That moniker is offensive to many. But we in the West are tolerant, perhaps excessively so, and we tolerate the singer, her name, and her antics. Muslims need to understand the premium we place on toleration if they want to live among us. A San Juan Capistrano councilman named his dog…
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Flag Burning, Muhammad Mockery, and a Double Standard
If a coalition of what some leftists call knuckle-draggers (including rednecks, bigoted white working stiffs, those who "cling to their guns and Bibles," in the derisive words of Obama) were to slaughter flag burners, the leftists would howl in protest, pointing out (rightly) that flag burning counts as protected speech in these United States. They…