Europe uses tolerance to justify intolerance

As soon as you say what speech may or may not be tolerated, you are a bigot

Have a look at this document, recently debated by the Civil Liberties committee of the European Parliament. It's a good example of how well-meaning people, convinced that they are standing up for the underdog, can end up doing enormous damage to freedom, to equality before the law and, perversely, to the minorities on whose behalf they presume to speak.

The draft Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance runs through all the usual Leftie desiderata: group defamation, hate crimes, yada yada. It argues, without the slightest trace of irony or self-awareness, for statutory tolerance. Not for everyone, though:

There is no need to be tolerant to the intolerant. This is especially important as far as freedom of expression is concerned: that freedom must not be abused to defame other groups.

You get a lot of these untintentionally funny statements from bien pensant types online:  "Don't give the bigots a platform", "I hate the haters", "I refuse to read your newspaper, it's too prejudiced".

It's hard to improve on the response to them by a Toronto blogger addressing the Canadian Human Rights Commission: "You're too stupid to tell me what to think".

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