Monday, July 16, 2007

Free speech legislation demands Libertarian response

Interesting link this morning about Free Speech and the Hate Crime bill.

www.eindiana.com


What do you think?

From Ken Gividen:

"Must Libertarians choose between free speech and gay rights?

No. Libertarians must advocate free speech for all and human rights for all. When special interest groups, such as gay-rights movement or fundamentalists, seek to erode the rights of others, Libertarians have an obligation to defend the First Amendment right of free expression."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

While I strongly support equal rights and treatment for all groups of people based on sexual orientation, race, religion, etc. I am more focused on making sure freedom of speech is available to all without any exceptions.

I find it annoying, ridiculous, and unAmerican when anyone or any group thinks they have the right to dictate what others can and cannot say or do for whatever reasons.

Robert Enders said...

Two points:

1. Bilerico.com is a private website. In addition to having the right of free speech, the owners of that site also have the right to add or remove links for any reason or no reason at all.

2. Outlawing hate speech only drives bigots underground. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, I still think its best if bigots are allowed to identify themselves openly as such. Ideally, with love, understanding, and compassion, we can change their minds. Failing that, we can simply avoid them.

3. More and more, bigotry is considered a mental disorder. Wouldn't a person charged with hate speech be able to plead insanity?

Anonymous said...

I believe you made three points.

But anyway, well put. I strongly agree.

It annoys me that everyone these days thinks that by banning something it will simply go away.

Such as:
1) smoking
2) prostitution
3) hate speech
4) narcotics
5) guns

Clearly this method does not work and will never work unless we come under rule of some sort of fascist regime that can wipe out everyone who is involved in these practices. And that tends to be UnConstitutional, among other things.

Aspergers.life said...

endiana.com, btw

1 - Libertarians believe gays (or anyone, for that matter) have the right to live their lives as they choose, providing they impose on no one else.

2 - Slurs published on Bilerico.com included "Fundie follies," "homobigoted," and "black pastor puppets."

Odd they would use slurs in an article intended to defend gays against bigotry.

3 - My personal view is that anyone who physically attacks gays for being gay (or evangelicals for being evangelical) should be prosecuted to full extent of the law. But special protection?

4 - I'm concerned that, while the gay community is pressing for equality in areas such as marriage, they are demanding special consideration for hate crimes.

5 - Bilerico.com is private site and they have the right to ban whomever they wish; it's a question of free speech which I support. But the spirit of hate and bigotry should not go unnoticed.

Anonymous said...

I agree that crimes such as murder against any person should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but when the issue of whether or not it is a hate crime gets mixed up in all of it it just seems silly and unfair.

Aspergers.life said...

Silly and unfair -- well said.

Ikonita said...

Oh the poor bigots. Let's have some perspective here. Currently, there is not a single gay organization in the country fighting to take away marriage rights from Christian heterosexual couples. When that happens, then I'll start to worry--maybe. Free speech only works in an environment where everyone is equal. Otherwise, it's an excuse for the majority to harass an unpopular minority. Sometimes the government needs to step in and help equalize things a bit.

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