Free Speech
Jan. 17th, 2011 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grouchiegrrlI have been reading Ginmar's blog on LJ, and she was talking about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Chuch who have moved on from protesting at soldiers' funerals to apparently protesting at (or threatening to so as to gain airtime) the funerals of the victims of the arizona shootings.
I struggle a bit with free speech, I guess because it is so often defending this kind of vileness, and so rarely defending any speech you actually want to get out there.* But yep he has the right to do it - and I agree with her that the only way to deal with this is by more free speech - better free speech. Civil activism is the only way to counter hate speech.
In the vein of more free speech - I give you http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20Jan11/Art_Jan11_oped3.html article from a christian online newsletter. Yay for this guy.
*also because I think there is a right for the community good to be valued. Free speech fails deal with the reality that not all speech is equal, and that someone's right to air their views needs to be balanced with the right of a community to have all groups respected and valued. Along the lines of the Canadian Charter. IMHO anyway.
I struggle a bit with free speech, I guess because it is so often defending this kind of vileness, and so rarely defending any speech you actually want to get out there.* But yep he has the right to do it - and I agree with her that the only way to deal with this is by more free speech - better free speech. Civil activism is the only way to counter hate speech.
In the vein of more free speech - I give you http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20Jan11/Art_Jan11_oped3.html article from a christian online newsletter. Yay for this guy.
*also because I think there is a right for the community good to be valued. Free speech fails deal with the reality that not all speech is equal, and that someone's right to air their views needs to be balanced with the right of a community to have all groups respected and valued. Along the lines of the Canadian Charter. IMHO anyway.