Remember the Muhammad cartoon scandal? When the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed the cartoons portraying the prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, many in the West viewed this solely through the lens of free speech. The media coverage suggested a confirmation of Huntington's "clash of civilizations" thesis. We believe in free speech and they don't. Many conservatives rallied to this viewpoint.
....How often during the Imus brouhaha have you heard the words "free speech"? Hardly.
Did the First Amendment even come up? Nyet. Did dozens of other radio hosts choose to echo the epithets directed at the Rutgers women's basketball team in order to affirm their solidarity with Imus and their enthusiasm for civil liberties? No, there has been an almost-universal howl of outrage. The man must be fired! Everyone involved should have sensitivity counseling to make sure this doesn't happen again! All of this is indicative of the racism that is endemic in our society!
....
No wonder the Muslims are chuckling. They see that when our sacred cows are gored, we scream bloody murder and demand accountability and heads on a platter. By contrast when someone elses's sacred cows are gored, we proclaim ourselves loftily on the side of free speech and demand that they "get over it."
He continues with a long itemization of the insanely complex ground-rules over what can be said or expressed, or even thought in today's media climate and calls for those, like Mike Nifong, who play the identity game to be held accountable for the damage they have done.
Read the whole thing here.
I remember that back during the civil rights era one telling argument advanced by proponents of reform was that our system of discrimination made us look bad in the eyes of the world at a time when we were engaged in a global conflict of values. Well..., the same argument applies today. Our insane PC system of "protected" and "preferred" categories of people provides ammunition to those who seek to destroy our culture and our persons.
The identity mongers have held sway for far too long and have caused untold damage to our society. We can no longer afford to cater to their demands. It is time to at long last heed Martin Luther King's call for a society that measures people by the content of their character.
