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Saturday, February 18, 2006

The "Free Speech" Smokescreen

Many conservative apologists, particularly in the good ol' US of A, have defended the publication of the Islamic-bashing Danish cartoons on the hallowed ground of free speech. They've argued in favor of free expression and have suggested that to squelch such would lead down the road to tyranny and, who knows, maybe even communism. What a farce!

These are the very same people who defend Dubya for not releasing information about the NSA spying program. These are the very same people who support the concept of embedded reporting and the right of the military to dictate to the media what can and cannot be reported concerning our various military forays. These are the very same people who are working behind the scenes today to PRIVATIZE the internet so they can better control the flow of "free expression".

In other words, it's a false argument on their part. They don't care a lick about free expression. They only pull out the "free speech" card when it suits their nefarious purposes.

3 comments:

  1. hey Trey,

    look at my comment on your post of 16 february. It's all so artificial. There's no such thing as freedom of speech. It's like pretending that a country can be free of taxes ... what a joke :)

    Some Belgian musicians wrote a song a couple of years ago, titled: It's a sad, sad planet.
    They were and are so right!

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  2. My opinion is that people should have their say. However, there must be consistency and imprisoning Irving after allowing the cartoons sends a clear messege of prejudice to muslims. I assume the Irving case is possibly fuel for further riots and disdain over the cartoons.

    Austria allowed the cartoons but disallowed the holocaust denial. A clear double standard and selective use of "freedom of speech" arguements which is evidently prejudiced in Europe.

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  3. I agree with the previous poster about double standards in freedom of speech, there must a fair and even playing field on this.

    However, I also agree with Jacques Chirac that what we also need to be responsible in our freedom of speech. In other words, people need to think before shooting off at the mouth. In my view, respect has to be the watchword in this.

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