The Ongoing Death of Free Speech: Prominent ACLU Lawyer Cheers Suppression of a New Book

[JimG]

As long as I can remember, the ACLU has been a firm champion of free speech–even unpopular speech. It sems that may be changing, at least among some ACLU staff.

The Ongoing Death of Free Speech: Prominent ACLU Lawyer Cheers Suppression of a New Book

 

[JonNC]

From the article:

But for numerous reasons, the ACLU — still with some noble and steadfast dissenters — is fast transforming into a standard liberal activist group at the expense of the free speech and due process principles it once existed to defend.

This is an utter misuse of the term “liberal”. There is nothing liberal in attempts to censor free speech. Those “noble and steadfast dissenters” are the liberals.
The others are acting in a fascistic manner.

 

[pnewton]

Business will do what business does, increase profits. That does equate to killing free speech. It is the market.

 

[JonNC]

Business will do what business does, increase profits. That does equate to killing free speech. It is the market.

I would suggest that few publisher’s bottom lines would be negatively impacted by the sale of such a book. It they are, it is because of the fascistic tactics of leftist groups who try to punish a publisher for publishing books.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

I bought Irreversible Damage from Amazon.

Abigail Shrier needs to be heard and her message needs to get out there.

It’s very strange how nobody is allowed to discuss a very new psychiatric condition like Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, but Covid19 is all over the news 24/7.

 

[Johann_du_Toit]

If the ACLU no longer believes in free speech then it has no reason to exist.

 

[BartholomewB]

I had never seen the name Chase Strangio until this moment, but if everything that Glenn Greenwald says in this article is true – and I suppose it probably is – then Strangio is a traitor to the cause of civil liberties. A large part of the ACLU leadership has changed sides. They are no longer defending civil liberties, but attacking them instead, in the name of their new McCarthyism.

 

[JimG]

As to Abigail Shrier’s book, this article from Dr. Conrad is pertinent to the discussion.

Censorship and Transgender Identification – Authentic Medicine

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Here’s the thing.
There’s a lot of people in health care who are not on board, but are bullied into silence.
I know a doctor professionally. He is openly gay and does family practice.
He will not send his teenage patients to gender clinics.
He has to be very circumspect how he talks about it.
But he knows something very fishy is going on.

 

[JonNC]

I had never seen the name Chase Strangio until this moment, but if everything that Glenn Greenwald says in this article is true – and I suppose it probably is – then Strangio is a traitor to the cause of civil liberties. A large part of the ACLU leadership has changed sides. They are no longer defending civil liberties, but attacking them instead, in the name of their new McCarthyism.

My own observation is that once one rejects the founding principle that individual rights are antecedent to government power and that government does not create or provide for rights, the elimination of rights becomes easier. If the premise is that government has the power to create and provide for rights, then government also has the power to eliminate them.
That is where the American progressive movement is, and probably always has been.

 

[KyPerson]

It’s not just the ACLU. Schools have banned books like Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Cay, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and To Kill a Mockingbird.
They are all racist apparently.

 

[goout]

American Civil Liberties Union:
Freedom is not merely the negative freedom that throws off restrictions in favor of absolute license. True freedom is the positive capacity to do good.
And to the degree we cannot recognize the good and follow it, we are enslaved.

And the ideological subject matter in the article is a text book example of slavery to deception (gender ideology).

 

[BartholomewB]

Yes, but schools have always had policies about what books kids are encouraged to read, at what age, and what books they’re not encouraged to read, ever. Schools put educational values ahead of civil liberties. They always have done. It’s their job.

 

[JonNC]

It’s not just the ACLU. Schools have banned books like Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Cay, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and To Kill a Mockingbird.
They are all racist apparently.

There may be elements in the stories that portray the racism of the era, but kids need to be exposed to that.

Yes, but schools have always had policies about what books kids are encouraged to read, at what age, and what books they’re not encouraged to read, ever. Schools put educational values ahead of civil liberties. They always have done. It’s their job.

Of course. Learning about life and history through literature is a good thing. Selecting text that is developmentally appropriate is critical.

 

[KyPerson]

I was a VERY precocious reader. I read at 12th grade level in the 3rd grade. My parents never picked my reading for age appropriateness and as a consequence I was exposed to all kinds of ideas. I grew up in the waning days of Jim Crow and read Huckleberry Finn in the 4th grade. I knew from the teaching of the Catholic Church that all people were equal before God and Huckleberry Finn only reinforced that. I am not so squeamish that words can offend me.