by Stephen Green knows that the Fairness Doctrine is anything but. How could it possibly represent fair outcomes given its birth in a bastard Congress and possessing a name like that?
If (when?) Obama is elected, by my estimation there’s an at least even chance that the newly-reconstructed FCC will reverse course and attempt to apply the New Fairness Doctrine to blogs.
I count the chances of that happening somewhat lower than Stephen’s even-money, but the mere suggestion that free speech might be impeded by a particular ideologically-minded group – any group – ought be be enough to arouse furious opposition.
Would resistance matter in this case? Progressives, aka ultra-liberals, aka neo-socialists, are masters at playing games with words and pretending they’re not doing what they’re doing. Like not putting bias into the media. Not hijacking the agenda of college campuses. Not promoting anti-American, anti-Christian agendas. Etc.
How does one fight vaporous lies? Political correctness, which by definition cannot be wrong, contains no principles to oppose. Yet there is power in these nullities, the power to distort and destroy, and that sly force must be countered through the use of speech, skill, and even muscle.
Stephen again:
Republicans, given the kind of power the Democrats are about to accrue, would maybe take away your right to get a completely totally naked chick to grind on your lap in a publicly licensed bar. The Democrats will do their damnedest to take away your right to speak. There’s the First Amendment, and then there’s the First Amendment. Be careful what you wish for.
The distinction he draws is ultimately the one that must be acknowledged: There are worse things that having one’s behavior bounded by morality, loathe as many are to admit that it’s so.
Millions of people in the former Soviet bloc, in China, in Cambodia, and in dozens of other places have experienced that horror. The first step down that road is the silencing of dissent. It’s no coincidence that progressives seek that end-game.
Will you let it happen here? Or will you speak out in recognition of the fact that freedom on Earth exists only between the poles of oppression that extremists of either side would enforce?
