Sunday, January 20, 2008

Really?

On an otherwise depressing day, I at least have my faith restored that a politician somewhere is gonna spew some reprehensible (and, in this case, cowardly) dribble. Today's nonsense:

Anticipating a possibly wildly violent reaction to an apparently inflammatory Dutch film that allegedly shows (in the words of the director) the Koran as a "source of inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror", Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch Foreign Minister, stated:
freedom of expression doesn't mean the right to offend.
Really?

Then what the fuck of any importance would such a "freedom of expression" be fit to protect?

2 comments:

Mike said...

Gawd. You'll be somewhat happy to know that at least some on the traditional left don't agree with this at all - like stageleft and babulican at stageleft.info have written a post stating the exact opposite - there is no right to be not offended.

What nonsense. If that were the case, I'd have been in jail since highschool...

Ron said...

Hiya, Mike. The idea that "freedom of expression doesn't mean the right to offend" equally serves creeps from the left and the right.

That's why left/right fanatics don't disagree in principle. They just quibble about what is offensive enough to bring in the thugs.

But you already know that, I know.