Saturday, February 04, 2006
You sick, sick bastards!
I'm talking about this.
And this as well.
I'm not going to waste too much words on the whole affair. Just this:
- If you live in a liberal democracy, you are going to have your beliefs satirized. Deal with it.
- Freedom of speech is [I]not something to be negotiated[/I]. There is no such thing as freedom of speech "within reasonable limits". That's an oxymoron. The West European politicians recently blathering about such a thing should be ashamed of yourself.
- You do not have the right not to be offended. You do have the right to be angry if I offend you, or hurt your feelings. However, this does not entitle you to threaten to kill me, or my family, or my compatriots, or to burn down embassies - just because you got your feelings hurt.
That's it. I am utterly sickened by the reaction to a few relatively innocuous cartoons in a Danish newspaper. I'm not that sickened by the usual gang of would-be martyrs waving about their kheffiyes and kalashnikovs and RPGs in Palestine, mind you. Them wanting to kill Danish is kind of a welcome change from their wanting to kill Jews or Americans. I am, however, sickened by the weak-kneed reaction from European politicians to the affair, including Muslim ones suddenly wanting to negotiate about free speech. They should know better.
The Danish PM has been a welcome exception so far. Glory to Denmark!
Merlijn de Smit
And this as well.
I'm not going to waste too much words on the whole affair. Just this:
- If you live in a liberal democracy, you are going to have your beliefs satirized. Deal with it.
- Freedom of speech is [I]not something to be negotiated[/I]. There is no such thing as freedom of speech "within reasonable limits". That's an oxymoron. The West European politicians recently blathering about such a thing should be ashamed of yourself.
- You do not have the right not to be offended. You do have the right to be angry if I offend you, or hurt your feelings. However, this does not entitle you to threaten to kill me, or my family, or my compatriots, or to burn down embassies - just because you got your feelings hurt.
That's it. I am utterly sickened by the reaction to a few relatively innocuous cartoons in a Danish newspaper. I'm not that sickened by the usual gang of would-be martyrs waving about their kheffiyes and kalashnikovs and RPGs in Palestine, mind you. Them wanting to kill Danish is kind of a welcome change from their wanting to kill Jews or Americans. I am, however, sickened by the weak-kneed reaction from European politicians to the affair, including Muslim ones suddenly wanting to negotiate about free speech. They should know better.
The Danish PM has been a welcome exception so far. Glory to Denmark!
Merlijn de Smit
# posted by Merlijn de Smit @ 8:11 PM 
