Thursday, November 02, 2023

Freedom of Speech Then, Freedom of Speech Now


A major topic of discussion lately is freedom of speech, a fundamental American freedom less valued than the right to pack iron, but nevertheless generally considered to be relatively important.

When most of us think of freedom of speech, we have a mental image of the famous Norman Rockwell painting of an everyman standing up to have his say while his neighbors listen respectfully ...


Nowadays, though, the image called to mind by freedom of speech is more likely to be Der Furor whining noisily about the injustice of being called out by a judge for his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric ...


or American nazis and crazy racists of all sorts exercising their freedom of speech to demonstrate their ignorance of history, denial of reality, embrace of hatred, and utter lack of empathy, and to deny the same freedom of speech to others ...


It's a reminder that while we have freedom of speech, not all of that free speech is worth listening to.

Have a good day, and come back tomorrow when we name the Right Cheek Ass Clown for November. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

1 comment:

Mike said...

"not all of that free speech is worth listening to."
Well said!