Deano
http://www.davidicke.com/oi/extras/07/december/freespeech.jpg
... TO SAY WHAT WE TELL YOU ...
'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.' - attributed to Voltaire
Hello all ...
There have been two front-page stories in the UK this week that are fundamentally connected, although I have seen no-one yet connect them.
One is the arrest of a British teacher in the Sudan for the heinous crime of allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear 'Mohammed'. Deep breath, no, I'm not kidding. When it comes to ignorant, juvenile, brain-dead stupidity, the extreme end of the Islamic religion is state-of-the-art. Well, alongside the extreme end of Judaism, Christianity, and many others, that is.
Gillian Gibbons was threatened with 40 lashes at one point for her teddy bear 'insult', but a court decided, amid British public outrage, to jail her for 15 days and then have her deported. Thousands even marched in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, calling for a more severe sentence, including some who wanted her to be shot. These people are programmed robots, batteries clearly not included. I have seen carrots with more intelligence.
I think I shall buy my granddaughter a teddy bear and call it Mohammed Jesus Jehovah Krishna. If any brain donor with a holy book wants to take offence I can always provide them with a finger to swivel on. I am so sick of this self-obsessed, holier-than-thou arrogance that seeks to impose its belief-program on the populous and screams 'I'm offended' whenever they don't comply. I saw one protesting Muslim software disk shout: 'We're revolting'. I couldn't help but agree.
The other story this week was the demonstration by Oxford University students aimed at preventing Nick Griffin, leader of the far right British National Party, and David Irving, the controversial historian jailed in Austria for 'holocaust denial', from speaking in a debate about free speech at the Oxford Union debating society
http://www.davidicke.com/oi/extras/07/december/nickgriffin.jpg
The British National Party's Nick Griffin arrives at the Oxford Union.
The irony is that at least most of the protestors at Oxford demanding that the two speakers be banned from appearing would have been equally appalled at a woman being lashed or jailed because a pupil named a teddy after the Muslim Prophet.
They are, however, so consumed by their own sense of self-purity, so far up their own anal passages, that they would never see that what they do in seeking to deny freedom of expression is just another version of 'stone the blasphemer'.
My problem is not with the protest against Griffin and Irving, that is protestors' free right (at least for now). It is that they sought to stop their freedom of expression.
The Robot Radicals of the Laxative Left really are something else and every bit as computer-like as the Robot Racists of the Ridiculous Right. A wonderful example is the website called 'Broad Student Left' (http://www.studentbroadleft.org).
There, I found this:
'Oxford Unite Against Fascism, Oxford University Student Union, Oxford University Labour Club, Oxford and District Trades Council, Oxfordshire UNISON Health and Unite Against Fascism have called a peaceful demonstration in the event of fascist BNP leader Nick Griffin and Holocaust denier David Irving speaking in the free speech forum on Monday 26 November at Oxford Union. We are still campaigning for the Oxford Union to rescind the invitations to Griffin and Irving.'
Lower down the same page was this:
Defend freedom of religion, conscience and thought - End attacks on Muslims - a motion to National Union of Students National Executive Committee.
Am I missing something here, or are they really so blind that even the most blatant contraction defeats them? Mind, to be fair, they don't actually mention freedom of 'speech' there, but another article on the same page declares: 'The Left must defend freedom of expression'.
Then why doesn't it?
The answer is that 'the Left', like 'the Right' and 90%-plus of global society, doesn't want freedom. They couldn't handle it. All their circuits would buckle and their fuses blow. They would be tramping aimlessly through the streets with staring eyes and blank expressions repeating in their terminal bewilderment: 'You mean, people are free to say what I don't agree with??'
Er, yeah. That's what real freedom is and that's why the vast majority don't want it. The 'freedom' they babble on about is not freedom, but their freedom - their right to do and say what they choose while denying the same rights to others.
http://www.davidicke.com/oi/extras/07/december/protest.jpg
Had those same protesting Oxford students been banned from a debate at the Oxford Union they would have been screaming 'human rights' and 'freedom of speech'. Ahh, but that's different because that's them and they are the good guys. You can tell by the hearts emblazoned on their sleeves. 'We must be allowed freedom of expression because what we say is right and good - it's the baddies that must be stopped.'
Contradiction and irony are indivisible and thus you have both in abundance with the doublethinking free speech deniers who also believe in the right to free speech. For instance, one of their heroes, the American academic, Noam Chomsky, said: 'If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all'.
But the Robot Radical computer software is so firewalled from reality that it can cheer at that sentiment while doing the opposite. Even then, we need to go further than Chomsky. It is not only that if we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in freedom at all.
It is that if we don't have freedom for those we despise there can be no freedom for anyone. This is the point that most people miss. Put simply, freedom is only freedom when everyone is equally free. You can't be a little bit pregnant and, by the same principle, you can't be a little bit free. You either are, or you aren't.
If people we don't like are not free to say what we don't like, how can we be free to say what we like? We can't, because if others are denied the right to free expression then whatever we say is not free speech, but speech that is within the bounds of official acceptability. That is NOT freedom of expression; it is conformity to what others have decided it is okay to say.
But self-righteousness is a virulent disease of the perception process and its most obvious symptom is selective amnesia. This allows the contradictions to slip through the decoding system and elude the conscious mind. Here is another gem from 'Broad Student Left':
'There is a world of difference between defending free speech and choosing to provide a platform for fascists. Far from being the champions of free speech history shows that when fascists rise to power they destroy freedom of speech, democracy, human rights and they have murdered millions of people and attempted to annihilate entire communities.'
Mmmmm. Where the hell do I start?
http://www.davidicke.com/oi/extras/07/december/protest2.jpg
There is no 'world of difference' between 'defending free speech' and then seeking to deny a platform to those we disagree with. No, hey, hold on, I get it now. It's okay for you to have freedom of speech so long as no-one actually hears you. Gotcha.
Then we are told that when fascists come to power they destroy freedom of speech. So what are these 'anti'-fascists doing trying to stop freedom of speech? I remember a classic quote from a Canadian guy called Richard Warman who vehemently campaigned to have me denied a public platform while working, wait for this, as a 'human rights lawyer'. He once said of me in a British newspaper magazine: 'What benefit can there be in allowing him to speak?'
As head-shaking sentences go, that's up there with any of them.
But that's the way these people think. They should have rights, but not those they oppose and then they have the nerve to promote themselves as 'anti'-fascists when what do the fascists do? They enjoy rights for themselves while denying them to those they oppose - or oppose them.
Richard Warman was connected to the Canadian Green Party at one point and the Greens claim to stand for human rights and freedom of expression. But this same 'Green politics', this time in the UK, banned me from speaking at a meeting at their party conference after a Green Party member invited me. The Greens believe in freedom of speech, you see ... er, But. You can always tell a freedom believer from a freedom denier because with the latter there's always a 'but'.
'I believe in freedom of speech ... but.'
'I believe in equal rights for all ... but.'
'I believe in the right to choose ... but.'
You find this recurring mentality everywhere because, like I say, most people don't want freedom. At the same time they must convince themselves that they do because it would be bad for their self-identity if they didn't believe in it.
... TO SAY WHAT WE TELL YOU ...
'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.' - attributed to Voltaire
Hello all ...
There have been two front-page stories in the UK this week that are fundamentally connected, although I have seen no-one yet connect them.
One is the arrest of a British teacher in the Sudan for the heinous crime of allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear 'Mohammed'. Deep breath, no, I'm not kidding. When it comes to ignorant, juvenile, brain-dead stupidity, the extreme end of the Islamic religion is state-of-the-art. Well, alongside the extreme end of Judaism, Christianity, and many others, that is.
Gillian Gibbons was threatened with 40 lashes at one point for her teddy bear 'insult', but a court decided, amid British public outrage, to jail her for 15 days and then have her deported. Thousands even marched in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, calling for a more severe sentence, including some who wanted her to be shot. These people are programmed robots, batteries clearly not included. I have seen carrots with more intelligence.
I think I shall buy my granddaughter a teddy bear and call it Mohammed Jesus Jehovah Krishna. If any brain donor with a holy book wants to take offence I can always provide them with a finger to swivel on. I am so sick of this self-obsessed, holier-than-thou arrogance that seeks to impose its belief-program on the populous and screams 'I'm offended' whenever they don't comply. I saw one protesting Muslim software disk shout: 'We're revolting'. I couldn't help but agree.
The other story this week was the demonstration by Oxford University students aimed at preventing Nick Griffin, leader of the far right British National Party, and David Irving, the controversial historian jailed in Austria for 'holocaust denial', from speaking in a debate about free speech at the Oxford Union debating society
http://www.davidicke.com/oi/extras/07/december/nickgriffin.jpg
The British National Party's Nick Griffin arrives at the Oxford Union.
The irony is that at least most of the protestors at Oxford demanding that the two speakers be banned from appearing would have been equally appalled at a woman being lashed or jailed because a pupil named a teddy after the Muslim Prophet.
They are, however, so consumed by their own sense of self-purity, so far up their own anal passages, that they would never see that what they do in seeking to deny freedom of expression is just another version of 'stone the blasphemer'.
My problem is not with the protest against Griffin and Irving, that is protestors' free right (at least for now). It is that they sought to stop their freedom of expression.
The Robot Radicals of the Laxative Left really are something else and every bit as computer-like as the Robot Racists of the Ridiculous Right. A wonderful example is the website called 'Broad Student Left' (http://www.studentbroadleft.org).
There, I found this:
'Oxford Unite Against Fascism, Oxford University Student Union, Oxford University Labour Club, Oxford and District Trades Council, Oxfordshire UNISON Health and Unite Against Fascism have called a peaceful demonstration in the event of fascist BNP leader Nick Griffin and Holocaust denier David Irving speaking in the free speech forum on Monday 26 November at Oxford Union. We are still campaigning for the Oxford Union to rescind the invitations to Griffin and Irving.'
Lower down the same page was this:
Defend freedom of religion, conscience and thought - End attacks on Muslims - a motion to National Union of Students National Executive Committee.
Am I missing something here, or are they really so blind that even the most blatant contraction defeats them? Mind, to be fair, they don't actually mention freedom of 'speech' there, but another article on the same page declares: 'The Left must defend freedom of expression'.
Then why doesn't it?
The answer is that 'the Left', like 'the Right' and 90%-plus of global society, doesn't want freedom. They couldn't handle it. All their circuits would buckle and their fuses blow. They would be tramping aimlessly through the streets with staring eyes and blank expressions repeating in their terminal bewilderment: 'You mean, people are free to say what I don't agree with??'
Er, yeah. That's what real freedom is and that's why the vast majority don't want it. The 'freedom' they babble on about is not freedom, but their freedom - their right to do and say what they choose while denying the same rights to others.
http://www.davidicke.com/oi/extras/07/december/protest.jpg
Had those same protesting Oxford students been banned from a debate at the Oxford Union they would have been screaming 'human rights' and 'freedom of speech'. Ahh, but that's different because that's them and they are the good guys. You can tell by the hearts emblazoned on their sleeves. 'We must be allowed freedom of expression because what we say is right and good - it's the baddies that must be stopped.'
Contradiction and irony are indivisible and thus you have both in abundance with the doublethinking free speech deniers who also believe in the right to free speech. For instance, one of their heroes, the American academic, Noam Chomsky, said: 'If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all'.
But the Robot Radical computer software is so firewalled from reality that it can cheer at that sentiment while doing the opposite. Even then, we need to go further than Chomsky. It is not only that if we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in freedom at all.
It is that if we don't have freedom for those we despise there can be no freedom for anyone. This is the point that most people miss. Put simply, freedom is only freedom when everyone is equally free. You can't be a little bit pregnant and, by the same principle, you can't be a little bit free. You either are, or you aren't.
If people we don't like are not free to say what we don't like, how can we be free to say what we like? We can't, because if others are denied the right to free expression then whatever we say is not free speech, but speech that is within the bounds of official acceptability. That is NOT freedom of expression; it is conformity to what others have decided it is okay to say.
But self-righteousness is a virulent disease of the perception process and its most obvious symptom is selective amnesia. This allows the contradictions to slip through the decoding system and elude the conscious mind. Here is another gem from 'Broad Student Left':
'There is a world of difference between defending free speech and choosing to provide a platform for fascists. Far from being the champions of free speech history shows that when fascists rise to power they destroy freedom of speech, democracy, human rights and they have murdered millions of people and attempted to annihilate entire communities.'
Mmmmm. Where the hell do I start?
http://www.davidicke.com/oi/extras/07/december/protest2.jpg
There is no 'world of difference' between 'defending free speech' and then seeking to deny a platform to those we disagree with. No, hey, hold on, I get it now. It's okay for you to have freedom of speech so long as no-one actually hears you. Gotcha.
Then we are told that when fascists come to power they destroy freedom of speech. So what are these 'anti'-fascists doing trying to stop freedom of speech? I remember a classic quote from a Canadian guy called Richard Warman who vehemently campaigned to have me denied a public platform while working, wait for this, as a 'human rights lawyer'. He once said of me in a British newspaper magazine: 'What benefit can there be in allowing him to speak?'
As head-shaking sentences go, that's up there with any of them.
But that's the way these people think. They should have rights, but not those they oppose and then they have the nerve to promote themselves as 'anti'-fascists when what do the fascists do? They enjoy rights for themselves while denying them to those they oppose - or oppose them.
Richard Warman was connected to the Canadian Green Party at one point and the Greens claim to stand for human rights and freedom of expression. But this same 'Green politics', this time in the UK, banned me from speaking at a meeting at their party conference after a Green Party member invited me. The Greens believe in freedom of speech, you see ... er, But. You can always tell a freedom believer from a freedom denier because with the latter there's always a 'but'.
'I believe in freedom of speech ... but.'
'I believe in equal rights for all ... but.'
'I believe in the right to choose ... but.'
You find this recurring mentality everywhere because, like I say, most people don't want freedom. At the same time they must convince themselves that they do because it would be bad for their self-identity if they didn't believe in it.