« Thanks Chico | Main | On Provokation »
February 18, 2006
On Free Speech
I'm sitting at my desk enjoying my "morning" routine of drinking my coffee and reading the news. I rarely watch the news any more, I can get it faster through the internet and don't have to wait through stories I don't care about to get to the ones I do. At any rate, this morning I was reading about the continued protests over the Danish cartoons in Pakistan, Syria, Crapistan, Sandycrackistan, and elsewhere in that Big Desert In The East, and one of the protesters was holding a sign that got me to thinking. The sign read "Free Speech = Cheap Insults". I think this can be interpreted a few different ways, one of which is to say that any freedom of speech will degrade into cheap insults over time. I think what it meant was that in this case freedom of speech turned into a cheap insult.
I think both interpretations are true, however. If you say what you want, and what you mean, you're bound to insult someone eventually. What gets me to thinking is, which is worse; not being able to say what you want, or insulting someone with what you're saying? Does it matter how insulting it is? For me, hearing rap music blaring out of somebody's stereo is pretty offensive, I really hate that stuff, but is it enough that the person who enjoys it shouldn't get to listen to it? I'm certain that this little blog I write on has, is, or will offend someone eventually, but should I be shut down? If an offense does occur, how should the offendee be allowed to respond? A letter? A phone call? Picket my house? Burn my house to the ground and shoot me when I come running out? As much as I'd like to aim a cruise missle at the guy blaring "Pimps up, ho's down" across the freeway, it's just inappropriate. Right?
So, it's okay for these Muslim nuts to be upset with the cartoon depictions of their Prophet, I have that down pretty well. But is it okay for them to take it to weeks of violent protests? Where's the line drawn? Who's more at fault? The cartoonists who drew something that they should have known may have been offensive, or the protesters who are taking their anger to an extreem level? I may be wrong but I think it's the protesters. Being offended is one thing, but letting your unhappiness destroy other peoples property is something entirely more unhealthy. I think a little tolerance, a sense of humor, and some common sense could have side stepped this entire protest business.
Posted by at February 18, 2006 11:26 AM