Atrios makes a fine observation here:
I got into a small fracas over at The Citizens with RbR over the Danish newspaper Mohammed cartoons thing, and this is what it boiled down to: he thought that because I thought the publishers were contentious, baiting, and mean, that I wanted to dismantle freedom of speech and the press. He was thinking that because they were _allowed_ to do something, questioning the _wisdom_ of it was tantamount to squelching their right.
I'm happy to defend to the death your right to say whatever idiotic thing you want. I also feel justified in telling you how idiotic it is, as well as how idiotic you're being for saying it.
Technorati Tags: politics, discourse
After 9/11, the justifiability of our actions quickly got confused with the wisdom of them.No doubt a wartime mentality enhances this whole notion, but regardless, this is one of those notions that people are on one side or the other of, and don't even know they are (or that someone could possibly be on the other side).
I got into a small fracas over at The Citizens with RbR over the Danish newspaper Mohammed cartoons thing, and this is what it boiled down to: he thought that because I thought the publishers were contentious, baiting, and mean, that I wanted to dismantle freedom of speech and the press. He was thinking that because they were _allowed_ to do something, questioning the _wisdom_ of it was tantamount to squelching their right.
I'm happy to defend to the death your right to say whatever idiotic thing you want. I also feel justified in telling you how idiotic it is, as well as how idiotic you're being for saying it.
Technorati Tags: politics, discourse
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