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No democracy without free expression
by Scott Gilbreath ~ February 12th, 2009
You can tell that Edward Keenan is a leftist because he lists Noam Chomsky as a “great thinker”, but he nevertheless agrees with Mark Steyn that the right of free speech is essential for democracy.
[T]he point of Steyn’s testimony to the hearing — echoing the sentiments of great thinkers throughout history including Voltaire, George Orwell, Noam Chomsky and Thomas Jefferson, just for a start — is so simple, and yet so in need of repeating in Canada, in Ontario, in Toronto today. The right to free expression is the most fundamental of all rights in a democracy — it is in fact the one right that allows the very existence of democracy.
Another frequently repeated truth is that if you don’t believe in free speech for the most offensive, hateful, moronic people you can imagine, you simply do not believe in free speech at all. It’s so self-evidently true that one would think it wouldn’t even bear saying. And yet it is a point constantly missed by a shocking number of people wielding influence in Canada today.
Among those missing that point, besides “human rights” commissioners, are the little Stalins running student unions and universities across Canada. Pro-life opinion is being stifled and suppressed at Saint Mary’s, Carleton, Calgary, Guelph, Lakehead, York, and elsewhere. Why are they so unwilling to defend their views with rational argument? One can’t help thinking it’s because they can’t.
If only the powerful people who disagreed with him [Steyn] — and with pro-lifers and whoever else — spent less time trying to shut him up and more time trying to argue with him, maybe we’d get somewhere.
Amen to that.
h/t: Mark Steyn
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