Pucker Up For Free Speech

With freedom of speech being perhaps our strongest guarantee you have to take the good with the bad.

While we celebrate Martin Luther King telling us that he had a dream, we have to stomach Ann Coulter vomiting up such filth as “It would be a much better country if women did not vote,” and “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”

A lot has been made of Ann Coulter’s speech being cancelled at Berkeley. Did they cancel her to shut her up or was it because of concerns for her safety? I don’t think anyone should ever protest Coulter just for the simple reason that she likes it. I get that because I love my hate mail. When you protest Coulter that gives her more to cry about, more press coverage, and bigger paychecks and book deals. She’s already written 12. Do you want to help her publish another?

I support the likes of Ann Coulter speaking freely but don’t make a mistake about her. She’s not a champion of freedom of speech. First off, she has to get paid and she’s more of a brand than anything. Second, she’s an opponent of facts and information.

It’s fair to criticize and question the press. We should always question where information comes from. That’s how the press gets their information. But anyone targeting the press, such as Donald Trump and Ann Coulter, are not champions of freedom of the press or freedom of speech. They’re only champions for their speech which is what they accuse liberals of.

The other day I saw a comment from a conservative friend who wrote “the trust is gone with any print or media. I do think that Carlson and Hannity speak the most truth. Maybe because I want to believe in something on the air.” All she needs to believe in something, like our president, is the desire to believe it. She doesn’t need facts. She needs confirmation bias. And if anything is contradictory to what this person wants to believe, then it’s fake news.

Any person who paints the media as having a liberal agenda, including your parents who you can’t discuss politics with anymore, is an opponent of free speech. They’re an opponent because they’re telling a lie, or in most cases, repeating a lie. They want to shut down what they disagree with. A poll came out Thursday that revealed 52% of Republicans believe Obama spied on Trump. That’s some serious bullshit to be consuming there. It’s like all the Republicans who choose to believe Obama is a Kenyan-Muslim coming to take your guns. Any newspaper or network which tells you the facts about each of those will be labeled “fake news” by conservatives. Isn’t it funny that information now has opponents?

While I wouldn’t cry if Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart, and Infowars all went out of business, I support their right to exist and feed the ignorant dumbasses of our nation. But they’re not champions of free speech either since it’s not as much conservative opinion they’re dishing out (which is fine), but false information. I also want Fox News to stick around just so conservatives can have their media and not get the irony when they complain about the “lame-stream media,” that Fox News has the most viewers.

That’s the price of free speech. Sometimes when you kiss the toad you don’t get a prince or MLK. What you get is some “God-Hates-Fags” fucker from Westboro or Ann Coulter.

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