Conservatives are now free-speech warriors. Where were they during repression of Occupy Wall St?

[kpete]

Fox News’ Hebdo confusion: Why its new “free speech” obsession is a sham
Suddenly it's super-concerned about the right to expression -- which means these flip-flops can't be far away
DAVID DAYEN



............



I’m sure conservatives found the Occupy message uncomfortable, and they had every right to oppose it and offer rebuttals. But they’ve spent the last week arguing that it’s wrong to extinguish that uncomfortable speech, to narrow the zones where that expression can take place. In fact they’ve called anyone who tries to shut down speech the moral equivalent of a terrorist. Does that also count for the nation’s law enforcement apparatus knocking out those who question the effectiveness of unregulated crony capitalism and soaring inequality?

We’ve seen this before in America, of course. Gilded Age progressives who dared challenge the system found themselves beaten and even killed for their demands for justice. That modern movements have thus far struggled to find the same eventual success may be chalked up to our Age of Acquiescence, our inability to conceive of a better lot for ourselves. Or maybe we’re just at the beginning of a generational struggle for economic justice. But it certainly makes it harder at the beginnings of that movement that too few would defend something so simple as their right to speak.

With public protest undergoing a renaissance in America, this is more than a rhetorical point. You cannot pick and choose which free speech is worthy of defense and which can be allowed to wither. You cannot vow eternal support of the right to blaspheme the Prophet Mohammed and go silent with that support when someone questions the secular religion of our economic and political system.

The dissolution of Occupy is rarely discussed as a free speech issue. But maybe amid a new round of protests for justice and dignity, we can get a reassessment. The marketplace of ideas shouldn’t have a boundary around it to keep out anything outside the range of acceptability. If you tweet #JeSuisCharlie, to be consistent you should add #JeSuisOccupy.



MORE:
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/13/the_rights_hebdo_hypocrisy_why_its_new_free_speech_obsession_is_a_sham/

[belzabubba333]

1. from the party of free speech zones

[DetlefK]

2. +1

[Man from Pickens]

3. Free speech has few true defenders

First things first - "free speech" is really just a subset of the actual right to "free expression" which includes expression of opinion not restricted to just speech.

If you really believe in free speech then you must defend the right to speak even the most obnoxious and odious ideas that you personally despise.

If you want to put to the test a conservative's alleged fidelity to free speech, burn a flag.

If you want to put to the test a liberal's alleged fidelity to free speech, advocate strict adherence to the sexual prohibitions in Leviticus.

Truth is, very few people actually want free speech, far more want the power to squelch by force ideas which they don't agree with, the difference among them being mostly which speech happens to be the subject.

Voltaire had it right, and anyone who doesn't adhere to that standard is not a defender of free speech.

[corkhead]

4. calling them out for their hypocrisy is pointless;

they don't care about that. They will say or do anything, no matter how contradictory it appears, so long as it will further their narrative, agenda and ideology.

[lunasun]

6. +1 !! exactly

[marmar]

5. Or for that fact of matter, where were a lot of Dems during Occupy?

nt

[canoeist52]

7. Yep, the Democratic leadership hid safely behind the TEA party.

[Skidmore]

8. Go back further to

the protests against the war during the Bush years. Remember all of those free speech zones? Rs stood by and said nothing back then. This goes back years before OW.

[OnePercentDem]

9. My problem with occupy

It was on private property in NYC. The movement was at the whim of whim the landowner.

[Douglas Carpenter]

10. they are inspired by their new found deep love for France