Free Speech Fascists
Cathy Seipp has written a column in today’s LA Times on what passes for free speech. This quote says it all:
However, it did occur to him that perhaps the long-delayed English translation of Oriana Fallaci’s new book, “The Force of Reason,” might finally be available, and that because Fallaci’s militant stance against Islamic militants offends so many people, a store committed to selling banned books would be the perfect place to buy it. So he asked a clerk if the new Fallaci book was in yet.
“No,” snapped the clerk. “We don’t carry books by fascists.”
Forgive me but that sounds alot like censorship, doesn’t it? I haven’t read the book and don’t know much about it or the author. It seems to me that not exposing yourself to different perspectives is how you develop blinders, which leads to an uninformed mind.
Isn’t that what we’re worried about in big city newsrooms and in universities? Aren’t we worried that there isn’t a diversity of opinions there? Aren’t we worried that the only diversity we’ll find there is diversity in skin color or ethnicity? I’m not saying that that type of diversity isn’t worthwhile but if that’s the only type of diversity you’ll find, then they’re fallins short of the mark.
Now let’s just savor the absurd details of this for a minute. City Lights has a long and proud history of supporting banned authors, owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti was indicted (and acquitted) for obscenity in 1957 for selling Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” and a photo at the bookstore showed Ferlinghetti proudly posing next to a sign reading “banned books.”
Yet his store won’t carry, of all people, Fallaci, who is not only being sued in Italy for insulting religion because of her latest book but continues to fight the good fight against those who think that the appropriate response to offensive books and cartoons is violent riots. It’s particularly repugnant that someone who fought against actual fascism in World War II should be deemed a fascist by a snotty San Francisco clerk.
Now that’s chutzpah. Calling someone fascist that fought real fascism during WWII is like Ted Kennedy calling someone a drunk or a philanderer. I don’t know this bookstore clerk’s name is but that person doesn’t have an ounce of credibility.
In fact, I’d say that this clerk is emblematic of what’s wrong with liberal elitists. There isn’t a bit of depth to their arguments. There’s only name-calling. What a sad picture.
It’s nothing like the liberalism of Hubert Humphrey, Pat Moynihan and Christopher Hitchens.
Cross-post at LetFreedomRing
February 26th, 2006 at 8:07 am
Free speech is great and I welcome any and all that crysade for the cause. Hardly an easy cause because eventually it tests whether one is a hypocrite or not when it comes time to defend unpopular speech. Thats what separates the real speech defenders from the amateurs.
Seipp writes, “But the truth is, by now we understand the Muslim world all too well. For those who manage to remain perplexed, there are many helpful news photos of placards (â€ÂBehead Those Who Disrespect Islam,†“Get Ready for the Real Holocaustâ€Â), often carried by religiously shrouded women, that can clear up their puzzlement.”
Note the lack of qualifiers. Its all 1 billion Muslims, not just the radical jihadists. She writes regularly, if she had limitations for her Islamophopia in mind she would have used them. In the US in 2003 there were 6.9 violent crimes completed per 1000 re DoJ, its not like we’re perfect.
“Lastly will M’s Seipp be joining me then to try and force the dozen local fundamentalists Christian book stores to carry Richard Dawkins’ The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design . And after failing to get these fundamentalist Christian bookstores to carry Dawkins’ book will she be calling them fascists, I know I won’t.”
Lastly, yes the book store should stock the book or make it available for order. It is ironic since that book store had afilliations with Ezra Pound the poet fascist sympatizer.
October 31st, 2010 at 1:46 am
Christian Books is the stuff i like coz i alway read the bible and i am a very religious person `
November 24th, 2010 at 9:48 am
my sister and i loves to read christian books because it inspires us to live life in its fullest :.-
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