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Freedom of Speech Means Freedom to Be an Asshole

Posted in Editorials on May 18th, 2014
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From the text of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution:

Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech

I am a firm supporter of the right to free speech and free expression. These rights are essential to other rights – political advocacy, religious freedom, artistic expression, academic freedom and the right to advocate for social change. I am so thankful to live in the United States where I have this right, and I hold it dear.

Not everyone who has these rights uses them for a good or useful purpose. The costs of free speech are high. When I was a clinic escort, I witnessed protesters who would harass patients and doctors. I find this morally abhorrent, and while I do support the FACE Act and other measures to prevent people from forming human chains around clinics, I also recognize that much of what these protesters do is and should be protected speech.

This weekend I attended the Women in Secularism conference sponsored by the Center for Inquiry. One of the speakers, Taslima Nasrin spoke about the harms of religion to women. Nasrin was exiled from her home country of Bangladesh for criticizing Islam. Others have been jailed or murdered by vigilantes for doing the same.

In her speech, Nasrin said,

“Without the right to offend, freedom of expression cannot exist.”

Mary Johnson tweeted this quote, and I retweeted it. Then this happened (conversation edited for clarity, see my twitter stream for unabridged conversation):

So, to sum up, according to Carl Nyberg, we can’t criticize Islam because of American imperialism, and we can’t be supporters of free speech unless we spend every waking moment trying to get Chelsea Manning out of prison.

I agree that there is racist and xenophobic sentiment underlying some critiques of Islam. But that doesn’t mean that it’s above question. Taken to its logical conclusion, Nyberg’s argument means that until we eliminate antisemitism in the United States, no one can speak up about the sexual abuse of children in Hasidic communities. I reject this entirely.

I don’t think that people should be bigoted or even unnecessarily mean to each other. I’m a huge supporter of social justice, civility, Wheaton’s Law, and plain old cheerfulness. But I believe these things must come from within and not be imposed by a government. The right to free speech includes the right to be an nasty and cruel abortion clinic protester, to voice islamaphobic opinions, and to tell me that I want to “shit on other religions without being criticized.” As Taslima Nasrin said,

“Without the right to offend, freedom of expression cannot exist.”

2 Responses to “Freedom of Speech Means Freedom to Be an Asshole”

  1. AlexAshleysMom Says:

    You might want to put Nyberg’s comments into context. IMHO he has an agenda and it’s not about Palestine or Gaza or justice for Muslims as he likes to claim. He’s been attacking not only Israel, but all Jews everywhere for years and was removed from DailyKos for rabid anti Jewish remarks. Not to deny serious problems in the Middle East or Israel’s and the USA’s role in it, but you have to weed out the plain old anti-Semites from the mix.

  2. AlexAshleysMom Says:

    Most of Nyberg’s worst comments were eventually deleted from Kos, but here’s a compilation of some of them: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/02/13/301529/-Holocaust-Denial-Anti-Semitism-and-other-Daily-Kos-HATE-Meta

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