Hollywood stars are forever complaining about the "crushing of dissent" in Bush's America, by which they mean Tim Robbins having a photo-op at the Baseball Hall of Fame cancelled because he's become an anti-war bore. But, thanks to the First Amendment, he can say anything he likes without the forces of the state coming round to grill him. It's in Britain and Europe where dissent is being crushed. Following the murder of Theo van Gogh in the Netherlands, film directors and museum curators and all the other "brave" "transgressive" artists usually so eager to "challenge" society are voting for self-censorship: "I don't want a knife in my chest," explained Albert Ter Heerdt, announcing his decision to "postpone" a sequel to his hit multicultural comedy Shouf Shouf Habibi!.
But who needs to knife him when across Europe the authorities are so eager to criminalise him? No society with an eye to long-term survival should make opinion a subversive activity. Here's a thought: we should be able to discuss homosexuality, Islam and pretty much everything else in the same carefree way Guardian columnists damn Bush's America as "neo-fascist"
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Inversion of Speech
Mark Steyn in today's Telegraph (UK):
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3 comments:
Ouch!
As usual, on the mark.
Nice piece.
Liberal Free speech is to Free Speech what The Italian Army was to War in Ethiopia.
Liberals often defend their over-the-top rhetoric by claiming "we" did the same thing during the Clinton years. My response: no conservative ever said President Clinton was a Nazi or compared him to Hitler.
Game, set and match.
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