A Sampling of Modern Liberals
Here's a "fascinating" post I found about our recent Kangaroo Court. It's published on "The Daily Kos", one of the most prominent Left-Wing American websites. The original article itself is fair and fairly well balanced. The author and I would probably be diametrically opposed on most every issue but at least s/he saw the travesty of justice that occurred here this past week.
But then open up the comments. There you'll see what I perceive to be a mixture of American and Canadian commenters. Almost surely all devout liberals; it's sort of a prerequesite for that site. And most of them make excuse after excuse about why the BCHRT is justified in doing whatever they damn well please. To these people, free speech is a relative concept. It's like those people who describe themselves as "very open minded". What that really means is that they're "open minded if you agree with them but close minded like a steel trap if you don't".
The good news for them is that if & when the 3 commissars of the BCHRT from this past week get fired, any of these folks would be just "perfect" candidates to replace them.
Labels:
BC Human Rights,
free speech,
hypocrisy,
kangaroo court,
liberals,
Vancouver
3 comments:
I've been following this story on your blog, and like most Americans of any political affiliation, I find the HRC to be highly distasteful. I don't like Mark Steyn or share many (if any) of his opinions, but he should be free to publish whatever he wants. People who disagree with him should also be free to publish whatever they want.
We don't currently have anything like the HRC in the US (although as the article notes, we have had comparable institutions in the past, although usually censoring speech from the other side of the spectrum). Canada is of course free to develop its own approach to free speech, but I agree with you that the approach the HRC is taking is not at all conducive to a free democratic society.
I disagree with your perspective on the comments, however. By my count, only 2-3 are supportive of the HRC. Kos comments boards are about as far-left a forum as you'll find on a major American political website, and the clear majority of these comments is anti-HRC. I don't think such an institution would be popular with American progressives. Please continue criticizing the HRC, but please do not associate it with all liberals and progressives--especially those of us south of the border.
I join with John in that I was surprised the Koz Kidz commenters were on the side of free speech at ALL, much less more than one of them.
And I loved this: "(T)he best way for liberals to thwart the likes of Mark Steyn is to stand up and be true to our first principles." (Umm ... free speech, anyone? The very thing the "half-witted scribbler" advocates?)
Very nice blog, PelaLusa, and I see you have others, through which I'll wander as soon as possible :o)
John,
You KNOW that I respect your opinion and have always found you to be fair & balanced, at least in your personal dealings with me. I would like to believe the reverse is true.
However, I think you have a blind spot with a great portion of your fellow liberals, especially when it comes to criticizing anyone who happens to be a member of a racial minority. In this regard, I strongly encourage you to listen to this interview with Tarek Fatah. He has an equal dose of criticism for the extreme right (which I have some problems with) but also with so-called "Progressives". It's the latter criticism that I'd really like you to hear.
If you've been following my coverage of this past week's events then you may or may not have seen my many comments on other blogs dealing with it (especially Andrew Coyne's). I criticized all people who grouped ALL Muslims with the complainants, who happen to be Muslim. I pointed out that I was not trying to tow any PC line but was just adamant that we must remain factually correct.
Back to the DailyKos commenters. As for the Excuse Makers, I cite the following: opendna, sagesource, Scipio, Corwin Weber, palantir, & morbie5. That's the vast majority of them, John. How you came to only "2-3" is something I cannot understand.
Anyhow, as a Canadian and a British Columbian, I appreciate your support on this matter. In the future, if the BCHRT were ever to be slanted in the opposite direction, rest assured that I will be out there defending the right to free speech of anyone more akin to your political views.
I do not consider Free Speech to be a left-right issue. Not at all!
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