The Beauty of Free Speech

From  Silence this infidel

 Mark Steyn is a bigoted, bullying, brazen, egotistical, unfunny, crass, self-serving Islamophobe and right-wing homophobe with the wit of a Soviet drains inspector and the sartorial understatement of a deposed Middle Eastern dictator, whose tedious views and repetitious anecdotes leave the listener feeling depleted of insight and starved of intellectual oxygen.

Actually, none of the above is true (apart from the sartorial bit — even Gaddafi would have thought twice about the gold tie and orange handkerchief combo) but the good news is I’m totally confidant that The Spectator Australia’s and the IPA’s recent celebrity guest — who dazzled Australia with appearances on Alan Jones, Counterpoint, Q&A and a sold-out speaking tour to promote his book After America — won’t sue me for defamation. Plagiarism, maybe, if I nick any of his jokes, which I would dearly love to. But defamation, no. That’s the beauty of free speech. It’s a doddle when you’re addressing people who are secure in their convictions, passionate in their attitudes yet happy to confront diversity of opinion. Free speech only gets tricky when you’re dealing with religious zealots or (just as bad) government bureaucracies who, when taking offence, threaten to imprison or kill you in order to ensure your silence.

That really gets right to the heart of the matter, doesn't it? Restrictions on our freedom of speech are routinely used by bullies that want to silence people for opinions they consider beyond the pale. Whose speech will be beyond the pale tomorrow? In a society with "reasonable" restrictions on free speech, you never know.