Am I hopelessly out-of-step? I'm 50 now, so maybe some fundamental changes have taken place in our ranks that went over my head.
But I don't think so.
In our contempt for hatemongers, are too many of us willing to abandon first principles? To become, like the pigs in Animal Farm, indistinguisable from that we set out to fight against?
Something is wrong here. I feel oddly out of place - as if I'm on the wrong side of the debate. But I ponder and ponder, and no, I'm not. I'm on the liberal side. But most liberals appear not to be. No so much anyhow. And it bothers me.
I guess I've always considered myself an ACLU, Alan Dershowitz liberal. Free speech is absolute and doesn't have to be justified. Whether it's been Robert Maplethorpe, Piss Christ, or flag-burning, the left (at least as I remember it) has always proudly stood for that hallowed principle: "I disagree with what you say, but defend to the death your right to say it."
Burning a Koran is a hateful act. Burning a Bible is a hateful act. But you have the right to do hateful things so long as you don't harm anyone, right? Don't we believe that? Or am I suffering some sort of false memory? Didn't the ACLU rightfully defend the right of those despicable Nazis to march in Skokie? I know they lost members over that one, but every liberal I know thought they did the right thing. Slippery slopes and all that.
When Obama was asked about the Mosque near (not "at!") Ground Zero he said he wouldn't comment over the wisdom of building it there. AND HE WAS RIGHT, the rightwing catcalls notwithstanding. Government officials shouldn't be commenting over the wisdom of constitutionally protected activities. So why are so many of us cheering as various government officials try to intimate these fringe lunatics. LET THEIR LOONINESS SHINE FOR ALL TO SEE! I thought the left stood for that. I still think it does...but all this angst over a Koran buring has my faith on that score a bit shaken.
Isn't it precisely the most despicable expressions that most require protection? Isn't that the test of our freedom? It's easy to support offensive expressions that don't offend us so much.....but isn't the true test our willingess to protect those that DO offend?
Sorry for the rant. But this is really bothering me. I think of myself as a pretty consistent liberal, in both the contemporary and the classical sense, and I've always considered the liberal answer to contemptible expressions to be to IGNORE THEM.
Are you offended by Howard Stern! Turn the dial. Do you think pornography is a threat to moral character? Don't watch it! Does flag burning cause you psychic pain? Look away!
Isn't this what we've always said?
I think our tendency to side with the historically oppressed may be coloring our reactions here - and that's certainly understandable. Islamophobia is a bad thing. But alas, people are entitled under our system to believe and say bad things.
Or am I a bad liberal?
Leftwingr