Tuesday, August 18, 2015



Progressive confusion

Denying free speech is a deliberate tactic for them

A week ago, a handful of protesters associated with Black Lives Matter shut down a Bernie Sanders speech in Seattle to protest what they see to be his insufficient platform on racial justice. This event has provoked a fierce debate within the left, but what is instructive about the debate is the illiberal terms on which it has been conducted. Sanders’ critics have defended the protest on the grounds that Sanders has not done enough for racial justice.

His supporters have replied that he has. Hamilton Nolan, representing the pro-Sanders side, called the shutdown “dumb,” “stupid,” “unwise,” and “counterproductive” because, Nolan explained, “Bernie Sanders is the most progressive serious presidential candidate, and the most liberal, and the most vocal and wise on the issue of America’s entrenched and widening economic inequality.”

Nolan suggested that protesters instead shut down speeches from the likes of Donald Trump. Other Sanders fans have urged Black Lives Matter protesters to disrupt Hillary Clinton instead of Sanders. (Some protesters reportedly planned to do just that later in the week but were foiled by the Secret Service.) And so the debate revolved entirely around Sanders’ ideological merits, and whether preventing him from speaking advances or hinders the progressive cause.

Absent from the calculation on either side is a normative debate over shutting down political speeches. Nolan made very clear his belief that his only problem with the method is that it has been used against a politician he likes. But maybe there is a more important question here than mere tactics. Perhaps shutting down a political speech is, normatively, wrong.

SOURCE


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The core here is that they believe it is acceptable to silence speech or speakers they disagree with. That is no different than North Korea's totalitarian regime. The progressives are the first to go when a totalitarian regime takes over and the present crop fails to heed history.

MDH

Alpha Skua said...

The big trouble with liberals is they think the U.S. Constitution only proclaims to them alone becuase liberals are such a bunch of arrogant twats

Anonymous said...

Typical of lefty protestors, my speech is protected but your's isn't. They preech for tolerance but never display it.

Flu-Bird said...

They call themselves Progresivists their real'y just communists that Joe McCarthy warned us about