“Freedom is an absolute state, there is no such thing as being half-free.”
This is brief, just another rant really. As an aside, I am aware that anything I write on this blog is utterly irrelevant and will have no effect on a damn thing. However, it is a place where I can, at least, write a little and express my views.
Freedom of expression (in speech, writing, art, music, video games and so on) is an absolute. One either has it or one does not have it. If one says "Yes, we have freedom of expression ... but ..." then freedom of expression has evaporated.
This is a point I have banged on about before until people are sick of me. But I won't stop because I really believe that freedom of expression is under threat. There exists censorship from large, powerful corporations and from many governments.
IF a group wants to march down the road sieg heiling, carrying the Swastika flag and singing the Horst-Wessel-Lied, then they should be allowed to. If they want to march down the road waving the Hammer and Sickle flag and singing the Internationale, they should be allowed to. If they want to march down the road talking gibberish and waving the Antifa banner, they should be allowed to. The same goes for Moslems, of all kinds, white nationalists, racists and the vilest examples of thought one can imagine.
This will, of course, provoke opposition. And that is good, ideas must be allowed to clash and combat each other. BUT - the use of violence instantly ends the right to their marching or whatever.
The USE of violence, not the THREAT of it.
At that point, the state has the right to exercise one of its few legitimate functions and use its monopoly over the use of force. All individuals engaged in the use of physical violence must then undergo the due process of the law.
NOTE: All of the above flags and banners above represent ideologies that are deeply obnoxious to me and are, for me, moral equivalents. But we must never stop the expression of those views.
No comments:
Post a Comment