When I began following free speech controversies, I was a First Amendment absolutist. Now I’m something less comfortable. I still think free speech is a good idea, certainly better than alternatives I’ve come across, but I’ve learned that everyone has a line that can’t be crossed, a word that sticks in the craw, an image that feels like a kick to the gut. The First Amendment, bless its little heart, always eventually lets us down (self-protection is innate, tolerance an acquired taste), so how can I not be bothered by its limitations?

This is a running log of arguments over free speech – some silly, some funny, some hard -- because free speech is all about argument. Being able to speak our mind makes us feel good and it's essential to real democracy and fairness. Yet, in the end, one of the best reasons to keep our speech rights intact is that we miss them when they’re gone.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

I just might be able to get behind this guy

Yes, okay, he was drunk and violent and perhaps nuts, but I'm pretty tired of Palin politics too.
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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

what todo about Marty Peretz

Sometimes more speech really is the answer to bad speech -- especially when the speaker is a smart guy like Winston Warfield.
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Urinate on them? Is that what's known as drawing a line in the sand?

Ah, symbolic violence -- as opposed to the real kind, which makes us all heroes.

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Saturday, November 6, 2010

holy book, holy cow?

Isn't the point of symbolic protest to make people take notice?  (Especially when what they take is also offense.)


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