“The Taliban want to throttle you in the name of all that is good and decent, as does Nancy Pelosi.”
That is absolutely the most idiotic inanity I’ve ever seen on FR. I don’t think I can be more insulting of it than just to say that it’s the worst possible sort of puerile moral relativism.
“But the concept of “freedom” is not applicable, because it relates to the government’s actions. That’s the concept.”
That may be your concept. Others note that agencies other than government can also interfere with freedom.
“as long as the government doesn’t act like a despot, enforcing its own idea of goodness, then it’s a marketplace of ideas.”
1. Not when there are other agents enforcing their own ideas, preventing the marketplace from functioning.
2. It has been said that people are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Neither are people entitled to their own “idea of goodness.”
“don’t ask for government enforcement of “goodness” and decency in the realm of the press.”
There is no need to put goodness in quotation marks. You know what it is. That said, I didn’t ask for government enforcement of anything.
“You violate the fundamental precept of our entire society if you do that.”
Road apples. It is no precept of our society that evil be held as on the same moral plane as good. Our government could criminalize the communication of leftist ideas without violating any principle of our founding.
“But forcing people to be good has never worked, as you know.”
Nobody said anything about forcing anyone to be good.
“Our appeal to people’s decency has to come from within the system that itself provides for us the freedom to scream from the rooftops what we believe to be true.”
It no longer does. That is partially due to government, and partially to other agents.
“The other guy has the same right, but if you don’t believe he does, you’re more like him than like me.”
Like him, and unlike you, I understand how the tactics of the left work to suppress the expression of opposing ideas; I understand how they progress from “You can’t stop me from saying this,” to “You can’t say that.” I understand how they use your misunderstanding of concepts to bind the hands of those who stand against them. I understand that all leftism is of and from Satan, and that if it is not utterly obliterated — as thoroughly as Carthage and by whatever means — it will destroy us.
You would have us stand by and let them destroy us, in the name of their “rights.” However, there can never be a moral right to wreak evil, and there is always a right to use moral means to stop people from wreaking evil. Where there exists a legal right to work evil, it is well to remember that moral rights precede and are the source of legal rights.
You said, among other amazing things: “Our government could criminalize the communication of leftist ideas without violating any principle of our founding.”
You, sir, are deluded.
And you disagree that our islamofascist enemies want to throttle us? Do you know what you are saying?
You would do better to try to think straight than try to insult people who do.
Another thing you wrote: “It no longer does. That is partially due to government, and partially to other agents.” You said this in response to my saying: ““Our appeal to people’s decency has to come from within the system that itself provides for us the freedom to scream from the rooftops what we believe to be true.”
Well, dsc, other agents are as free as you are to speak their minds, publish their papers, advertisements, etc., as long as they don’t break the law.
After all, this is a free country, whether you would prefer otherwise or not. It’s clear to me that you prefer something else. Have you ever thought of going to someplace where the government runs the show instead of here, where you’re free to say what you please?
If your complaint is really about the fact that you lack the economic resources, hey, that’s the way it is. Economic and political freedom go together, happily.
Is our system “just”? No, I don’t think so. I don’t think a consumer-focused country is a just country. I think justice would be for the world to share its resources and for Americans to not accumulate unneeded products and invest instead in the development of societies in which the people have barely enough to make it from one day to the next. But that’s a different problem.
I would prefer to not trade barbs with you, by the way.