Eugene Volokh has an eminently sensible post on the whole controversy. He cites with approval the Boston Globe editorial which condemns the original publication of the cartoons as needlessly and irresponsibly provocative. Journalism, the editorial notes, enjoys broad rights and privileges but also incurs the obligation to use those rights and privileges responsibly. Journalistic provocateurs are to be denounced but not silenced.
Volokh then goes on to show that the Globe has not always been so sensible. In the past, when the target of provocation was Christianity, the Globe consistently sided with the provocateurs. This illustrates a pernicious and indefensible double standard in elite liberal thought.
Volokh also notes that in the past the Danish workers whose jobs are now threatened by Muslim boycotts had themselves organized boycotts against Israeli products. And, further, that left-wing European publications now expressing outrage at anti-Muslim sentiments had themselves in the past endorsed expressions of anti-semitic attitudes.
What goes around comes around.
Put them all together they constitute a damning indictment of liberal/left wing hypocrisy, but then the hypocrisy of the left is so blatant and pervasive that he's really just shooting fish in a barrel.
Read his posts here.
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