Counter-Currents
1,408 words
Against Speech Restrictions
Long time readers know that I am very interested in issues of free speech, and strongly oppose “speech laws” such as exist in Europe, and particularly abhor the hypocrisy of the high priests of democracy pontificating about “freedom” as they restrict the most basic freedoms to support regimes of totalitarian multiculturalism and multiracialism.
I recently read where Jews are pushing for yet more speech restriction in Europe, which is remarkable, since free speech there is already outlawed, and I’m not quite sure what more can be done, unless they want to make it illegal for a European to refuse to grovel in the dirt when a Jew walks by. Regardless, I want to summarize some arguments against speech restriction; I see this as important, and I hope that champions of free expression, particularly in Europe, read this and utilize whatever arguments here that they find useful.
General statement of principle
You cannot criminalize dissident opinions and call that tolerance; you cannot restrict the right to expression and call that freedom. It’s very easy to make clichéd statements such as “there can be no tolerance for intolerance,” but who is it who decides what “intolerance” is? Those in power can very easily eliminate their opposition by labeling opposing viewpoints as “intolerance” and “hate”; thus, legitimate expressions of sociopolitical opinion and of genuine interest become outlawed. That is not democratic, it is not tolerant, and it is not freedom; it is a blueprint for totalitarianism. In a fully functioning democracy, you cannot draw a line around topics that constitute some of the most crucial issues that face a nation (e.g., the future demographic and cultural makeup of that nation) and declare that certain viewpoints on these fundamental issues are beyond the pale. You cannot expect members of the national community to accept the legitimacy of decisions about these issues when those members have been excluded from the discussion. Any decisions made without open debate and consideration of the full spectrum of viewpoints are completely illegitimate from the standpoint of any honestly democratic state. And this goes beyond politics; one cannot have open and honest scholarship when it is actually illegal to question details about particular historical events. This is madness, it is a turn to the dark ages; it is a total and complete disgrace; it is the modern equivalent of burning witches and heretics at the stake.
Some Specific Issues
The “Fire” Argument
An over-used argument is that restriction on speech has always existed, and the analogy of “You can’t yell fire in a crowded movie theater” is usually invoked. I agree that is morally objectionable to maliciously yell “fire” when you know that such a fire does not exist. However, it is even more morally objectionable to not yell fire when there is evidence that a fire really exists, when you see the flames and smell the smoke. Most objectionable of all would be laws that prevent people from warning others about the existence of fires, laws that prefer to see the innocent burn rather than have them properly warned. Given that there are legitimate reasons (whether you agree or not) for people to view immigration, multiracialism, diversity, etc. as dire threats to the native population, equivalent to a “fire,” it is therefore morally objectionable to prevent these people from bringing these threats to the attention of their fellow citizens.
The “Fighting Words” Argument
We are told that “fighting words,” speech that could incite violence, have always been prohibited; thus, the analogy is made to whatever opinions those in power want to suppress. Besides the danger of having those in power having the authority to outlaw speech that threatens their own power and authority, there are three basic problems with the “fighting words” argument.
First, who decides? What should be the definition of “fighting words?” After all, what one person believes is a mild and rational statement could be viewed by someone else as outrageous and justification for violence. In Europe today, adherents of a particular non-European religion have been killing cartoonists because they view satire against their beliefs as “fighting words.” Yet, most Europeans, including those on the Left, find nothing objectionable about the satire. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Why? Truth be told, virtually any statement could be found objectionable and offensive by someone; therefore the “fighting words” argument potentially holds any opinion, any comment, any belief hostage to the objections of anyone in the community.
Second, we have hypocrisy. It is mysterious indeed that the System seems to only find Rightist memes to be “fighting words,” and never those of the Left. Indeed, when the Left heaps the most vile abuse on the West and its traditions, that is simply “protected free expression,” but when the Right defends those traditions, then those are “fighting words.” Thus, the problem of hypocrisy and that of definition go hand-in-hand.
Third, there is the problem of self-contradiction. Indeed, there are many who would label the very idea of speech restriction itself as “fighting words.” Therefore, support for speech restriction should itself be . . . restricted?
Then we have the mindless chants of “Racism is not an opinion, it is a crime.” Very well. Can we extend that theme to other memes? Anti-religiousness is not an opinion, it is a crime. Support for abortion is not an opinion, it is a crime. Criticism of Europe and the West is not an opinion, it is a crime. Marxism is not an opinion, it is a crime. Mass immigration is not a policy, it is a crime. Homosexuality is not a lifestyle, it is a crime. Oh dear, it seems like we do have a problem now, don’t we?
Getting back to “racism” – racism is at its most basic simply freedom of association writ large. It is a perfectly normal human reaction to racial differences. Criminalizing racism is criminalizing human nature. It is the equivalent of the government telling you who you should have as friends, who you should marry; this is the most overt totalitarianism; it is outright madness for any state claiming to represent “democracy.” This is thought control at its most Orwellian.
Legitimacy
Getting back to a theme noted in the general statement of principle: decisions made in the name of the people have legitimacy only so far as that the people – all of them – are allowed to express their opinions on the subject, freely debate it, and be allowed to protest what they object to about that subject. If the multiculturalists want “bigots” to accept the verdict of elections that impose multiracialism, then those “bigots” must be allowed to freely contest that election, speak their minds, and have their opinion included in the mix. Individuals disenfranchised from the process will not accept the legitimacy of the outcome of the process. Given the growing support for the “far-Right” in Europe, the numbers of people so disenfranchised will become an increasingly large fraction of the population, making democracy untenable. You end up with ludicrous scenarios such as a political party in Greece being the third largest political force, while its leadership languishes in jail for expressing the same opinions that are winning them votes. We have the bizarre scenario throughout Europe of popular political parties being banned, and the mainstream right and left joining forces to exclude from power nationalists who are supported by a sizable fraction of the nation’s population.
And this goes beyond politics. Why is the Left so afraid of having their ideas debated? Why are they afraid of a free marketplace of ideas? If they are confident they are right, and the Right is wrong, why are they so intent on making sure the Right is muzzled and far-Right ideas never see the light of day? The basic ideas and memes of a society, as well as the products of academic scholarship, have merit and legitimacy only to the extent that they are freely discussed, debated, refuted or defended, and proofed for logical rigor and consistency with known facts. Speech restrictions dispense with the Western idea of free thought and bring us to the dark ages of rigid dogma. Intellectuals today sneer at the “close-mindedness of the past” — Socrates and the hemlock, the martyrdom of Bruno, the persecution of Galileo, and the Salem witch trials, but they behave exactly the same. They are unable to see that they have become in the present that which they mock from the past.
Source: http://eginotes.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-free-speech-primer.html
24 comments
Oh, come now. If by some magic any of us here were “in charge”, would we really allow those who hate our guts and want us gone from the face of the earth to say anything they want? Would you continue to hold still when they tell outright lies about our history, about everything, as they are now doing? I sure wouldn’t. I’d ban freedom of speech to suit myself and the people whose welfare matters to me.
You are making the arguments you make because you are on the losing side and you don’t want to be. Still playing the morality card at this late stage – but I guess that’s a white Christian egalitarian thing.
I disagree. If people know that certain ideas have been deemed unacceptable by a regime, they’ll know that they have no control over where their society is going. And then we’re back to square one. Since I do believe in the ideas I put fourth, I doesn’t worry me that someone questions them. In fact, I welcome the debate. And if someone wants to make an ass out of themselves by saying things that are clearly stupid and offensive, then let them. They’ll only serve to discredit their own cause. The problem is not that our opponents have been granted freedom of speech. The problem is that they have seized all the important positions of influence in media, academia, etc… If our ideas were to gain power, you could expect that our viewpoints would dominate public discussion. But outright criminalizing opposing views would not be necessary, in fact I think it would be a liability.
If by some magic any of us here were “in charge”, would we really allow those who hate our guts and want us gone from the face of the earth to say anything they want?
Here is one answer: it depends on how those who hate our guts act today. I have known hardcore leftists who have supported free speech for rights (whether on the grounds of principle or expediency). After the White Nationalist revolution, those leftists might be allowed to speak freely–fair is fair.
But the real dilemma is not with the hardcore leftists. It is with what appears to be mainstream liberals. They are the ones pushing the hatespeech laws and enforcing the Orwellian regime on crimethink. The mainstream liberals are the ones enabling the anti-freedom leftists, whether by corporate grants or university sponsorship. You can look at mainstream liberalism as a sort of secular caricature of a religion: with its orthodoxy, it’s inane guilt complex, its inquisitions and show trials, and its suicidal delusion that the surrender of territory, cities and gene pools is actually advance (pace Burnham).
This is why the Right can learn much from the Wars of Religion in fighting modern liberalism.
Guess what? If I was in charge, and if I decided to restrict speech, I would not call my regime a “democracy,” and I would not hold marches extolling “free speech,” and I would not use rhetoric that always starts with “I believe in free speech, BUT…”
Let our masters openly state that their regimes are multicultural totalitarianism, and I’ll stop complaining. Until then, I am going to push back against their hypocrisy, on the free speech issue as well as on “multicultural inclusion,” an use every memetic weapon possible, including this essay.
Indeed, the attitude of “do unto others” as you suggest – “I’d restrict speech, so others can do so to me, even if they are hypocritical about it and I would not be,” sounds very much like a liberal “white Christian egalitarian thing.” As a national socialist, I have other ideas.
Indeed, as a national socialist, it may interest some here that I would make vaccinations mandatory (except for those with a valid medical exemption). No more free riding on the herd immunity of others, no more coddling of folks with their bizarre theories. In a Sallis, regime, it’ll be either a “shot in the arm, or a bullet in the head.” Have a nice day.
‘Indeed, as a national socialist, it may interest some here that I would make vaccinations mandatory (except for those with a valid medical exemption). No more free riding on the herd immunity of others, no more coddling of folks with their bizarre theories. In a Sallis, regime, it’ll be either a “shot in the arm, or a bullet in the head.” Have a nice day.’
In any case, if vaccinations do what its supporters claim, then the vaccinated are automatically protected regardless of who or what they are exposed to. If not, why get vaccinated?
No such thing as “herd immunity”. They make it up as they go along because the world is full of suckers gibbering and trembling over micro organisms. (Not naming names, though.)
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but how much more dangerous is that road when the intentions are not at all good? You might want to ask why the vaccine manufacturers have protection from lawsuits.
Re your regime, Teddy. Go ahead. I will have to take those bullets because your form of government wouldn’t be worth living under. You’d protect your avowed enemies from having to keep their traps shut but the people who supposedly matter in the first place would be shot because they don’t want their babies to receive 48 doses of god-knows-what in the arm by the time they are 5 years old. I can suddenly see the attraction of so many for Ron Paul and his Liberty Crusade. Dr. Paul is opposed to mandatory vaccinations but would not prevent anyone from receiving them if they wish.
I know a woman (personally; I’ve met and spoken with her; not someone over the internet) whose daughter died from a vaccination when a baby. This was entered on the child’s death certificate.
http://eginotes.blogspot.com/2015/01/on-vaccination.html
http://eginotes.blogspot.com/2015/01/libertarianism-choice-responsibility.html
I’ve read your 2 links. About risks: it is true, all those things you list are risky, but vaccination is a different kettle of fish completely because (1) it is not a treatment for any pathology, but is marketed to us as a preventive; (2) when what you are starting out with is a healthy, normal baby, no level of risk is acceptable. When you have a previously normal child who dies or is left brain damaged from a vaccine, I assure you I’ll accept your apologies.
In any case, have you ever read any serious books by medical people who take the anti-vaccination viewpoint? If you did, you wouldn’t be so quick to claim that smallpox was eradicted by vaccines. I sure don’t expect you to listen to me, I really don’t – I have no credentials. But I’d love to attend a debate between you and a qualified scientist or doctor.
And, yes, I’d be prepared to have me and my family and others like us sequestered away from the vaccinated bunch (it may or may not be better than a bullet through our heads) – but you don’t grasp the irony, do you. Apparently, in your future national socialist world, it is a crime to get sick.
Every single one of the dozens of children I attended school with got the measles. Not one to my knowledge died or even had to go to the hospital. From what I read, most of the kids getting measles nowadays who have had the shot and still got the illness come down with an unusual, severe form.
I’d like to point out as well, that the purpose of this short essay was to provide some memetic ammunition to our European comrades in their response to even more speech restrictions being planned there. Theoretical discussions of a future White state aside, the situation in Europe is becoming more problemmatical. There will eventually be zero chance of nationalist parties getting anything done if expression of their entire platform on immigration is illegal (some in Sweden want to make criticism of immigration illegal). If “any expression of xenophobia” is illegal, then that leaves what? Marine Le Pen posing with Negro children? What? We even have Merkel now going to Hungary to lecture Orban (the guy who cancelled the NPI conference) about the fact that the relatively mild Jobbit got votes in the last election. For shame! People voting the wrong way! Throw ’em in jail! Weston got arrested in England for quoting Winston Churchill, and we are going to quibble here about the ethics of supporting free speech for nationalists? Seriously?
Freedom of speech is really a noble ideal. The highest level of human discourse. To be able to talk about an idea without all the emotional triggers intruding would be marvelous. All the questions of who, what, when, where and how could be investigated and evaluated. Conclusions could be made. But, it all depends upon people of like mind who are will to listen and to ask questions.
Unfortunately, there is always someone with a bucket of cold water.
My problem is the nearly-insuperable difficulty of separating political advocacy, which I think should be unrestricted, with commercial advertising, which I think should be — and I chose this word with care — Draconically restricted:
1. Absolute and unconditional prohibition of any commercial advertising aimed at children. Instead, ads from the State to the effect of –
– Though this is possible to do, renting another person’s money is not for personal use; it is always better for the individual to save, leaving the renting of money to institutions; including tabular demonstration of how compound interest increases the debt.
– Wagering value upon games of chance is consummately foolish, illustrated by the odds — and perhaps films of gamblers losing everything, and the tragedy therefrom resultant.
2. Holding ALL advertisement to stringent standards of veracity and factuality.
I agree.There is way to much advertisement in our society. I don’t think advertisement falls under the category of free speech, but then how do you separate the two? Maybe you can’t, but you could at least pass laws to limit the amount of obvious advertising. If nothing else, it can at least serve to make our cities aesthetically nicer. There’s nothing uglier than walking down a street where every building is covered head to toe with advertisements.
Why so hard on commercial advertising and consumer credit? Because I think that the two in combination are, to the country, the equivalent of an individual smoking a mixture of crack cocaine and phencyclidine.
Curently in my local city there is a council funded/payer funded billboard campaign entitled something like ‘End Hate Speech’. They then proceed to enumerate the so called ‘ target of so called hate (speech) and they of course list many of the ‘victims’ , the non-normative groups that the left liberal progresives usually champion. So, I guess to question, criticise, and generally not accept the making of the of the exception the norm, is an act of ‘hate’ speech. Of couse it is alright for those who push anti-hate laws , to hate , whch is reallyn to legitmise the hate to those , who seek to oppose them and their hegemony and shatter their lies . These, are to be silenced.
So who is policing the anti- hate haters Hate?
Hence,
”Indeed, when the Left heaps the most vile abuse on the West and its traditions, that is simply “protected free expression,”
(Interestng that the billboards graphic lettering colours are in certain well known occult colours)
Never forget. Science is the new protected religion and cannot be questioned. They have got the stats to prove it. It is universal and the particulars do not matter. They apply it equally across the board and every race and ethic group is the same. Oh and sex too. The body is just a mechanical thing like a car. I can hardly wait to have a computer for my doctor for the ones I have had rely on their toys more than their brains. They do love playing with chemicals too. I can be my own experiment.
” They apply it equally across the board and every race and ethic group is the same.”
Sounds like religion to me.
But, fair enough. Science is bad. Don’t use a computer. Done’ drive a car or fly a a plane. Don’t use electricity. Pray hard enough and all you need will be yours.
I did not say all science was bad. I said it was the new religion that one is not to question and if one believes in free speech, then one should be able to ask questions and get an answer that is not an appeal to authority or any other fallacy. I do think I also said I wanted a computer for a doctor, since that is what they rely upon, instead of thinking for themselves.
Personally, I think doctors should be required to disclose their financial portfolios and not be allowed to invest in pharmaceutical companies or medical supply companies because the temptation is really too much to ask them not to promote those products. Doctors are besieged by salesmen too. I wonder how much subliminal suggestions get through? Ego flattery works wonders. They are human after all, aren’t they?
This comments thread reminds me of the Camille Paglia quote:
“If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts.”
Grow up. Did I say I wanted control?
I never asserted that any individual here wanted to control civilization. I merely compare the Paglia quote with certain attitudes extant here, and that which I have noticed elsewhere. Indeed, anecdotal evidence – which no doubt can be verified by study – suggests that the anti-vaccine movement (although started by one discredited autism study by a male doctor) is primarily being promoted by (well off, White) women. Somewhere Jenner and Pasteur are spinning in their graves.
Paglia is no friend of the Right (despite the occasional reasonable comment) and that quote of hers must have not been an easy admission. There’s truth to it. Do we deny that women are, on average, more risk-averse than men? Less rational and logical? No doubt, sometimes those traits come in useful and have an evolutionary source in child-bearing and child-rearing. But the dangers faced in modern society are often quite different than that faced in the environments we evolved in. Invisible microbes are indeed more threatening than “scary men holding needles.”
Now, the idea that science is a “religion” – I’ve written before, it is merely a tool. We shouldn’t make science into a religion. But tools are important. If your life depends on hammering a nail, then you’d better grab that hammer, not a paper-clip. It’s not so much science: the real “religious” conflict is between Faith/Opinion/Solipsism vs. Rationality/Fact/Reality. The former no doubt often serves better as a motivating factor. But with dealing with realities – such as human health, societal health – we had better look at the latter.
As an example of this conflict: regardless of how a war may begin, one usually motivates the population to fight using the former set of values. But the manner the war is fought had better utilize the latter. If one side uses faith and prayer, and the other side uses ICBMs and H-bombs, the outcome will be little in doubt.
Science and technics are tools, but they are tools that reflect certain realities about the world we live in. If the scientist says that a 10 megaton thermonuclear explosion will annihilate a Pacific atoll, then the natives can believes whatever they wish, but if they stay there, they will die. As a certain Negro “scientist” says (and it is one of the few things he says that make sense) – the thing about science is, whether you believe in it or not, it is true. Belief or no belief, prayer or no prayer, that bomb is going off and all hell is going to break loose. And that will be a fact that cannot be evaded.
How did atomic bombs take the place of your hysterics over people concerned about what is in vaccines (like mercury) and your polemics over people must be forced to do what I say is their civic duty? Surely our dear beloved scientists could devise some sort of test to see if it was your kid they are going to kill or not. There is a very interesting book called “Trust us, we’re the experts”. Consensus reality is not necessarily objective truth. It is more like political reality. Science is not immune to politics. Why are vaccine scientists so afraid to answer people’s questions?
http://eginotes.blogspot.com/2015/02/is-science-religion.html
There’s an opportunity here for White Nationalists/Alternative Rightists to stake out the claim as the champions of freedom.
Look at the Free Speech Movement in the USA during the 1960s. It proved a way for the Left to galvanize millions of students and activists. Now supposing the Right were to use the same tactic? Stand on the court house steps or coffee house stage or student commons and read the forbidden words. Then when the establishment tries to crack down, turn the incident into guerrilla theater for free speech. Make the establishment Left the bad guys. Make the rebel Right the good guys. Then watch the movement spread.
Make it the “in” thing to rebel against the establishment by, say, standing up in the classroom and reading the works of Shockley or Rushton. Or publicizing the crime rates of third world invaders. Or even quoting Winston Churchill on Muslims.
This would be especially effective in the USA with its First Amendment, providing you got some legal backup. There could also be posters which Rightist activists could plaster on campuses, freeway overpasses, streetlamps–again to challenge the system and encourage others to do the same spontaneously. And any number of other agitprop media.
There’s a related issue: gun rights. What is the attitude among Europeans to ending gun control insofar as an armed citizenry is (supposedly) a guarantee against tyranny.
In the bigger picture, the Right can position itself as the party of freedom. The playbook has been handed out. It is a matter of getting onto the field.
Well if we succeed, what will we teach children in our schools? That’s where the rubber hits the road. Are we just going to give them a question mark? Or are we going to give them the Truth that we fought for – and preserve our preeminence against all manner of vicious “liberals” who wish to overturn the Revolution.
There’s a place for questioning everything in higher education – which by definition will be for the few. Other people can read what they want. Obviously organized Communism and Political Correctness must be crushed without mercy.
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