Chick-fil-Lessons

By , August 1, 2012 10:32 pm

So what do we learn from the recent Chick-fil-A controversy and protests? Well,we learn that

1. We’ve turned 1/6th of our economy over to people who think it’s fine and dandy to use the considerable power of government to shut down speech they personally don’t approve of;

2. Many on the left has no scruples about maligning the right’s motives;

3. The Tea Party and other like-minded people will be out in force on Election Day (below, the line today at Chick-fil-A in Orem, Utah);

4. And thankfully, some on the left still believe in free speech.

About that free speech thingy, go here and read what the Volokh Conspiracy of law professors has to say about it. Eugene Volokh is one of the nation’s top Constitutional law scholars.

UPDATE: The author of the Facebook rant referred to in #2 pulled his post.

2 Responses to “Chick-fil-Lessons”

  1. Kip says:

    Greg,

    I agree with what Serwer has to say on the subject of free speech, so thankfully (I guess), I’m one of the “some” on the left who “still believes in free speech.” What I object to is your characterization of the issue of free speech as largely a right versus left division. Per Serwer’s article, I don’t recall too many conservatives who supported free speech when it came to the building of a mosque near Ground Zero. Nor have conservatives in Utah been supportive of gay rights until fairly recently, if at all. So I think both the left and the right have some work to do when it comes to protecting freedom.

    • Gregory Taggart says:

      Yeah, I could have framed the point a bit more carefully. When nobody reads your blog, you get lazy. I agree that the right has its work to do on free speech issues as well, though I disagree that no conservatives spoke out in favor of the Mosque on First Amendment grounds. Thing is, the right never get much credit for defending speech, and the left rarely gets criticized for what, to me anyway, are practices that stifle speech. Protests that shut down guest speakers on college campuses, for example. Cries of racism or homophobia and such that stop speech before it’s begun. Well-intentioned (I hope) PC codes that leave the bewildered speaker or writer wondering where the next eggshell lies. Do people on the right abuse speech as well? Sure, and I condemn it when I see it. That said, I see it more on the left. Better, maybe it seems like it happens so much more on the left because, like I said, the left too often gets a free pass. As for gay rights, Utah has made a lot of progress in that area, but that wasn’t the subject of my post, so I’m not going to address that right now. Thanks for commenting.

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