Free speech under threat, again, in the US, from the left

The lawsuit against Mark Steyn

A very, very good piece by Conrad Black.

Peruse relevant left venues on the topic of “global warming denialism,” and you will see how frightfully true it is that, having failed to convince enough people in the right places with free speech, fair and square, the global warmers in America now are consumed with a desire to silence their opponents by simply criminalizing disagreement.

If this works you can imagine what they will do about opposition to immigration, affirmative action, or a great many other things.

They will seek to criminalize it all as “hate speech.”

The attitude of the left, aptly characterized.

Charles Murray

Bill Zeiser writes,

In summarizing the views of Voltaire, biographer Evelyn Beatrice Hall wrote the famous words: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

How far we have drifted from that pithy and principled description of free speech.

A more apt version for our time might be “I disapprove of what you say, and I will make it my personal mission to make sure you have no venue to say it, and I will snidely point out that I have not violated your freedom of speech because the rabble I have joined with to restrict what you say is not an arm of the government, and anyhow, you are a hate monger and hate mongers shouldn’t be entitled to their say.”