Salman Rushdie: "The Moment Someone Says, 'I Believe in Free Speech BUT,' I Stop Listening"

Me too. That's because, like Rushdie, I know that the "but" means that that person does not believe in free speech. Not really. He or she is looking for that imperceptible "line" where free speech veers into "hate speech." And since they can never seem to locate it, they want to ix-nay all speech that's mean or rude or ugly or blasphemous or offensive or all of the above. (Rushdie calls such folks "the but-brigade"; I call 'em "but-heads.")



Update: Harpoon Siddiqui, a paid-up member of the but-brigade, believes in free speech but...he thinks we infidels are using free speech to "cloak" our "anti-Muslim bigotry."