And there it is again.
Lots of confirmation of my point on this thread, and pretty much all of them.
Keep your opinions to yourself, or there will be consequences.
After all, this is America.
.
you are right Mac...but so is Plasma.....if you open your mouth and say something....you have to be willing to deal with the response you may get.....otherwise,like you said....Keep your opinions to yourself......just sayin...
Of course, freedom of expression means that I can respond to someone's words. But there is a clear and significant distinction here.
When someone says something that is racist or anti-gay or whatever, that provides me with an opportunity to engage them in debate. Perhaps I can change their hearts and minds, perhaps I can soften their stand. If nothing else, they'll know that there is a mature and reasoned counter-argument to their bigoted approach. Perhaps it will cause them to finally re-think things a little.
But that isn't even
close to what the American Left does, in two ways.
First, they'll scream "racist" or "homophobe" at every opportunity, whether it's true or not, whether it's even in context or not, for no other reason than to put their target on the defensive and control the conversation. Once the target is on the defensive, the Left has successfully taken the conversation away from the original point.
Second, there is a massive difference between responding in kind something and issuing "consequences". I can't imagine that this isn't abundantly obvious. It's quite clear that the Left has decided to make itself judge, jury and executioner, and the final arbiter of what words Americans are and are not allowed to say without fear of a retribution that goes far beyond debate.
They want to issue "consequences", I do not. I'm not afraid of a messy society in which debate is not muffled.
And precisely how does screaming "racist" or "homophobe" or issuing consequences change hearts & minds? I don't think it does. They're not interested in changing hearts and minds, they're interested in intimidation and threats and forcing conformity.
I can think of several societies in which citizens walked around afraid of saying the wrong things in fear of annoying the wrong people, and no thanks, I'm not interested, nor will I ever be. As democrat Kirsten Powers said: "How ironic that the persecutors this time around are the so-called intellectuals. They claim to be liberal while behaving as anything but. The touchstone of liberalism is tolerance of differing ideas. Yet this mob exists to enforce conformity of thought and to delegitimize any dissent from its sanctioned worldview. Intolerance is its calling card."
.
