Mencken was right.astroprisonerJanuary 23 2008, 19:56:34 UTC
Whenever we pass a law against freedom of speech or expression, with some noxious form of speech or expression as the intended target, we "know" that it's only going to be used on the that noxious form of behavior. Some speech with which no sane man can agree.
"The trouble about fighting for human freedom is that you have to spend so much of your life defending sons of bitches; for oppressive laws are always aimed at them originally, and oppression must be stopped in the beginning if it is to be stopped at all."
I'm kinda surprised to see anyone speaking in defense of Ernst "Hitler is alive and well inside the Hollow Earth, and oh yes, the Holocaust is a Jew lie" Zundel -- though I think it's better to have these guys out in the open where you can see them. And besides, Zundel is such a sorry fool.
And nailing someone for airing a foolish opinion is a very bad idea. As I've told friends of mine who support banning opinions they find disagreeable: what happens when someone with the authority to make it stick decides that YOUR opinion is worthy of nothing but a prison term?
That's the problem, control is more a progressive thing than a conservative. As a matter of fact, when it comes to controlling people's public behavior conservatives are actually more liberal than progressives are.
Yes. I've also sad as much to some of my fellow Christians who tend to be to knee-jerk in their responses to everything they dislike. "If you give goverment the right to suppress speech and behavior we [Christians] all despise, then what happens when they use that very same law to suppress opinions of ours that someone dislikes?"
I so wish that American schools emphasized thinkng over feeling...
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law! Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that! Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
People who propose to deal with "malefactors of great wealth" by denying them the liberties that the deniers wish for themselves forget that said "malefactors" can easily use their "great wealth" to preserve their freedoms, and then turn those same oppressive laws upon their critics. It has happened, repeatedly, in the history of America and many other countries.
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And, in our discussions before we pass these law, we always manage to forget these words from H.L. Mencken:
"The trouble about fighting for human freedom is that you have to spend so much of your life defending sons of bitches; for oppressive laws are always aimed at them originally, and oppression must be stopped in the beginning if it is to be stopped at all."
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And nailing someone for airing a foolish opinion is a very bad idea. As I've told friends of mine who support banning opinions they find disagreeable: what happens when someone with the authority to make it stick decides that YOUR opinion is worthy of nothing but a prison term?
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You know as much problem as the left has had with right-central authorities (both real and imagined), you'd think they'd get that.
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I so wish that American schools emphasized thinkng over feeling...
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Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060665/quotes
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People who propose to deal with "malefactors of great wealth" by denying them the liberties that the deniers wish for themselves forget that said "malefactors" can easily use their "great wealth" to preserve their freedoms, and then turn those same oppressive laws upon their critics. It has happened, repeatedly, in the history of America and many other countries.
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