By Ted, I Think He's Got It
The great Theodore Dalrymple writes re free speech and those, like a certain imam in French, who have a problem with it:
Freedom of expression requires not so much the exercise of self-control in what is said as its exercise in reaction to what is said.
Exactly. Which is why an out-of-control reaction to that which is "offensive" is an exercise of brute power, and why it can be such an effective means of curtailing--with the aim, ultimately of killing--that very freedom.
"As far as Hassen Chalghoumi is concerned, then, you can have any freedom you like—so long as you don’t exercise it."
ReplyDeleteSounds somewhat familiar...
"Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black." - Henry Ford
The difference being that this imam intends his argument to be the case forever, damn his eyes.
These people are a blight.