Freedom from Speech

“Freedom From Speech,” a 61-page broadside written by Freedom for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) president Greg Lukianoff, deftly illustrates the evolving assault on free speech. “The public’s appetite for punishing attempts at candor gone wrong, drunken rants, or even private statements made in anger or frustration seems to be growing at an alarming rate,” Lukianoff warns.

The author cites a range of incidents to make his initial point, covering a large and diverse cast of characters. They include former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson, chef Paula Deen, actors Gary Oldman and Mel Gibson, media’s Don Imus and Juan Williams and others, all of whom elicit varying degrees of sympathy, even as they have all fallen prey to the “modern American censor” who demands that “there must be zero tolerance for anything that anyone might find offensive, regardless of the context.”

“The public’s appetite for punishing attempts at candor gone wrong, drunken rants, or even private statements made in anger or frustration seems to be growing at an alarming rate,”

I'm on the side of severely punishing even isolated incidents, if the incidents are bad enough. I have boycotted GM since their criminally corrupt bankruptcy and will continue the boycott forever, cheering all bad news for GM and encouraging everyone I know not to buy GM. The same is true for TARP banks, companies that ban firearms on their property or donate to traitors (such as Obama), and others on the opposite side in the war over America's future.

On the flip side, I've eaten more Chik-fil-A in the year since the far left fringe tried to boycott them than in the previous decades. This could easily be the final battle over whether America will remain a free country, and I will not do anything that helps our enemies. I will hold those on Obama's side personally and professionally responsible for taking their anti-freedom positions.

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