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Why Liberals Have Flip-Flopped on Free Speech
Breitbart ^ | 7-2-1018 | Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

Posted on 07/02/2018 6:40:12 AM PDT by blam

In a remarkably honest exposé, the New York Times acknowledged Saturday that “liberals who once championed expansive First Amendment rights are now uneasy about them” ever since conservatives realized they should apply to them as well. The Times cites First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams who noted that whereas the left once led support for First Amendment protections, they are now “at least skeptical and sometimes distraught at the level of First Amendment protection which is being afforded in cases brought by litigants on the right.”

The difference between then and now? Many of the ideas currently being protected by free speech rights run contrary to progressive ideology. Over the last 13 years, the Supreme Court “has been far more likely to embrace free-speech arguments concerning conservative speech than liberal speech,” the Times said.

One law professor at Georgetown, Louis Michael Seidman, who used to defend free speech now sees his prior position as a mistake.

“When I was younger, I had more of the standard liberal view of civil liberties,” Seidman said. “And I’ve gradually changed my mind about it. What I have come to see is that it’s a mistake to think of free speech as an effective means to accomplish a more just society.”

Catharine A. MacKinnon, a law professor at the University of Michigan, goes further still, declaring that free speech reinforces and amplifies injustice because it is now being used to defend ideas she finds distressing.

“Once a defense of the powerless, the First Amendment over the last hundred years has mainly become a weapon of the powerful,” writes MacKinnon, who teaches such courses as “Evolution of Gender Crimes” and “Sex Equality.”

Whereas free speech used to be invoked to defend “radicals, artists and activists, socialists and pacifists, the excluded and the dispossessed,”

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: censorship; firstamendment; freespeech; liberalfascism; liberals; media; msm; tds
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A good oped piece: (Trump Derangement Syndrome)

Michael Goodwin: The left needs to face reality -- Trump is winning

1 posted on 07/02/2018 6:40:12 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam

In other words, liberals are hypocrites. But I already knew that.


2 posted on 07/02/2018 6:43:00 AM PDT by taxcontrol (Stupid should hurt)
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To: blam
free speech reinforces and amplifies injustice

Red Wave coming.

3 posted on 07/02/2018 6:44:35 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If you beleive the dog, then take his advice.)
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To: blam

For the same reason they fail at talk radio.

Liberal ideas can’t stand the light of day.


4 posted on 07/02/2018 6:45:30 AM PDT by G Larry (There is no great virtue in bargaining with the Devil)
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To: blam

“who teaches such courses as “Evolution of Gender Crimes” and “Sex Equality.”

In other words she’s a flaming hate filled Leftist loon who would happily shove us and our families into boxcars to get what she wants.

L


5 posted on 07/02/2018 6:47:19 AM PDT by Lurker (President Trump isn't our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.)
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To: blam
It's been a long decline for the American left:


6 posted on 07/02/2018 6:49:42 AM PDT by Trump20162020
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To: ClearCase_guy
NBC’s Chuck Todd: Trump ‘Is Winning,’ Dems Are ‘Reeling’
7 posted on 07/02/2018 6:50:19 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam
"Over the last 13 years, the Supreme Court “has been far more likely to embrace free-speech arguments concerning conservative speech than liberal speech,” the Times said."

Note to the Times: its "free speech", period. Not "liberal" or "conservative".
Unless, of course, one embraces the concept of "some speech is more free than others".....

8 posted on 07/02/2018 6:50:45 AM PDT by Tench_Coxe
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To: blam

Didnt Supreme Court Justice Crazy Kagan just denounce the “ weaponization of the First Amendment”?
Just do a web search on that term

Crazy lib progressives want to weaponize the First Amendment and
de-weaponize the Second Amendment !


9 posted on 07/02/2018 6:52:56 AM PDT by silverleaf (A man who kneels for the national anthem doesn't stand for much of anything)
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To: blam

They weren’t for “free speech”, they were for not having their speech supressed. They also weren’t for “diversity”, they were only for themselves not being excluded.

Everything about the left is fake.


10 posted on 07/02/2018 6:57:43 AM PDT by Truthsearcher
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To: Tench_Coxe

“Some animals are more equal than others.


11 posted on 07/02/2018 6:58:06 AM PDT by READINABLUESTATE (A progressive liberalsÂ’ happiness is built on systemic contingencies, which they will then seek to)
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To: blam

SHUT UP! They said.


12 posted on 07/02/2018 6:58:28 AM PDT by Skywise
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To: Trump20162020

Feel the love er whiplash!


13 posted on 07/02/2018 7:05:56 AM PDT by cgbg (Hidden behind the social justice warrior mask is corruption and sexual deviance.)
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To: blam
A great article about an article....

This is why some of the Satirical pieces are so hard to get these days. I swear that some of these "intellectuals" are trying to be funny or cute, sarcastic or cynical. But they are not and this is not satire.

"One law professor at Georgetown, Louis Michael Seidman, who used to defend free speech now sees his prior position as a mistake."

“When I was younger, I had more of the standard liberal view of civil liberties,” Seidman said. “And I’ve gradually changed my mind about it. What I have come to see is that it’s a mistake to think of free speech as an effective means to accomplish a more just society.”

Whereas free speech used to be invoked to defend “radicals, artists and activists, socialists and pacifists, the excluded and the dispossessed,” MacKinnon laments, it has now become “a sword for authoritarians, racists and misogynists, Nazis and Klansmen, pornographers and corporations buying elections.”

14 posted on 07/02/2018 7:06:57 AM PDT by Tenacious 1
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To: blam

Again the LEFT demonstrates that when they talk of freedom, it is always nuanced towards their freedom, not a universal freedom. Thus a cause of past defense, “Freedom of Speech”, now, when that shoe pinches, becomes a cause to criticize its defense.

Once again I proclaim my belief that LEFTists are like vampires, they cannot see themselves in the mirror, they cannot admit that they can only win when the playing field is slanted to their favor.


15 posted on 07/02/2018 7:08:30 AM PDT by SES1066 (Happiness is a depressed Washington, DC housing market!)
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To: blam

To paraphrase Erdogan, for Leftists free speech is like a bus, when you arrive at your destination, you step off.


16 posted on 07/02/2018 7:09:50 AM PDT by Oratam
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To: blam

It’s kinda hard to use your “free speech” when some commie has his foot on your neck.... :(


17 posted on 07/02/2018 7:10:12 AM PDT by unread (Joe McCarthy was right.......)
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To: blam

Nothing for thee, but everything for me. Damned hypocrites!!!


18 posted on 07/02/2018 7:13:58 AM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
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To: blam

They never flipped. They have always been fascists that demand adherence to their views.


19 posted on 07/02/2018 7:21:10 AM PDT by CodeToad
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...
They haven't flip-flopped, this was the intent all along. Liberals and leftists are all liars. Thanks blam.

20 posted on 07/02/2018 7:25:01 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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