From: TABRON-AT-BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 17:55:35 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: free speech/silencing


Too many people to reply to in this thread, bound to misattribute or misquote
so am not going to try for the moment:

The author who said that free speech is often a red herring in the U.S.
is, I think, exactly right (though not in the way that he meant, I believe.)
Free speech as a political issue only comes up when it is a question of which
underlings are to be squashed. Rich white men have no difficulty speaking 
their mind, but are the first to say they're being "silenced" whenever they
are challenged on an issue. (Antonin Scalia comes to mind.)

Thus the failure of the liberals in this country: they will not repress
but they also do not propagate their own ideas (for fear of triggering a
"we have been silenced" reaction from the right.) The right, on the other
hand, happily both represses AND propagates, and the only reaction from 
the left is a tepid "Don't do that to me," to which the right correctly
responds, "Don't assume I partake in your ethical beliefs."

I say "they" but of course this is _me_, I am a liberal in the U.S., and 
I try to be conscious of this so I canNOT be asked to back down from
propagating my own thoughts.

Judith Tabron
Brandeis University
tabron-AT-binah.cc.brandeis.edu


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