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Celebrate Conformity (Cont)
SteynOnline ^ | October 14, 2014 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 10/14/2014 8:51:51 PM PDT by OddLane

Many Americans seem to think that free speech and the First Amendment are synonymous. They're not: the former is a larger and more primal concept. But one consequence of that confusion is that, whenever free-speech questions arise, you always get a ton of emails droning, "There's no First Amendment issue here, Steyn. Mozilla/Brandeis/A&E/whoever is not the government. It's a private entity and is perfectly free to can its chief exec/disinvite Ayaan Hirsi Ali/suspend 'Duck Dynasty'/whatever if it wants to."

Which is true as far as it goes, but doesn't address the core question of ugly thuggish identity-group enforcers remorselessly narrowing the bounds of permissible public discourse.

Still, for all those First Amendment pedants out there, consider this story from Houston, Texas:

(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: freespeech; marksteyn

1 posted on 10/14/2014 8:51:51 PM PDT by OddLane
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To: OddLane

I absolutely LOVE this guy, love his style, love his writing, his wit. Wish I could meet him.


2 posted on 10/14/2014 9:10:45 PM PDT by hulagirl (Mother Theresa was right)
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To: OddLane

Ebola Gay. Hah, Steyn’s funny.

Ok, here’s an idea from the pea-NUT gallery.

We want bi-partisan “cooperation”, right ?

So let’s run a bi-partisan Presidential ticket !

Al Franken and Mark Steyn.

Yes, vote the Franken-Steyn ticket.


3 posted on 10/14/2014 10:18:02 PM PDT by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves)
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To: OddLane
Dig out your old dog-eared copy of The Road to Serfdom, and page to Chapter XI, “The End of Truth.” To wit:

“The most effective way of making everybody serve the single system of ends toward which the social plan is directed is to make everybody believe in those ends.”

“It is not difficult to deprive the great majority of independent thought. But the minority who will retain an inclination to criticize must also be silenced.”

” . . . the plan itself in every detail, in fact every act of the government must become sacrosanct and exempt from criticism.”

4 posted on 10/15/2014 12:57:13 AM PDT by Jacquerie (Article V. If not now, when?)
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