So much for the provocateurs
Some lefty sites were encouraging their readership to head on down to the U of T for Kathy’s Lunch n’ Learn today, to cause disruption or throw pies or somesuch. (Oh wait, only the super-cool Richard Warman encourages whackadoos to throw pies… nevermind)
They didn’t show. It was instead a lively room of conservatives, Conservatives, and general members of the population who are concerned about the stripping of our most basic right: The right to free speech.
So where were the provocateurs? Well, as Kathy told us:
They’re lefties…. they couldn’t afford the $20 to get in.
I was pleased to note that there was a reporter there from Eye Weekly. At first I was annoyed - they tend to be over-the-top liberal and rather unfriendly. But then I realized that with the kind of content they promote - homosexuality, virulent anti-establishment and anti-Americanism, anarchy, atheism and more - that they have a vested interest in not allowing publications and individuals to be silenced for their views and beliefs. And while they no more want to throw their lot in with conservatives than we want to throw our lot in with Stormfront, this is an issue that transcends political beliefs. Or at least it should.
[...] encouraging their readership to head on down to the U of T for Kathy’s Lunch n’ Learn today, to cause disruption or throw pies or somesuch. (Oh wait, only the super-cool Richard Warman encourages whackadoos to throw pies… [...]
Pingback by Steynianism 74.0 « Free Mark Steyn! — March 7, 2008 @ 12:50 pm
Too bad the $20.00 discouraged them. I can’t imagine how much fun it would be for a leftie to bring a pie to a gunfight.
That said, the smart lefties, and they do exist, understand the fact that free speech is a critical piece of the democratic idea. Imagine, just for fun, if we reverted to the 50’s and made any mention of homosexuality taboo. (OK, now don’t get that excited, my children read this site.) The point being that to speak of the formerly unspeakable has been a huge boon to any number of minority communities. We may not like it but they do. And I’m fine with that. Just so long as I am allowed to point out that the religious beliefs of certain fundamentalists are dangerous and contrary to the basic values of liberal democracy.
Comment by Jay Currie — March 8, 2008 @ 1:09 am
To give Eye Weekly its due, it did publish an editor in defense of Mark Steyn’s freedom of speech. http://www.eyeweekly.com/city/editorialdigest/article/15222
Comment by Seraphic Single — March 9, 2008 @ 7:30 pm