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Liberals decry ‘overvalued’ First Amendment in violent wake of anti-Islam film

Sep. 26, 2012 11:04am Meredith Jessup

The furor spreading across the Middle East which President Obama is blaming on a dumb YouTube video doesn’t seem to be dying down anytime soon. The “controversy” has piqued the interest of liberals, including Slate’s Eric Posner who wonders if the United States “overvalues” the free speech rights enshrined in the Constitution’s First Amendment (emphasis mine):

The universal response in the United States to the uproar over the anti-Muslim video is that the Muslim world will just have to get used to freedom of expression. President Obama said so himself in a speech at the United Nations today, which included both a strong defense of the First Amendment and (“in the alternative,” as lawyers say) and a plea that the United States is helpless anyway when it comes to controlling information. In a world linked by YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, countless videos attacking people’s religions, produced by provocateurs, rabble-rousers, and lunatics, will spread to every corner of the world, as fast as the Internet can blast them, and beyond the power of governments to stop them. Muslims need to grow a thick skin, the thinking goes, as believers in the West have done over the centuries. Perhaps they will even learn what it means to live in a free society, and adopt something like the First Amendment in their own countries.

But there is another possible response. This is that Americans need to learn that the rest of the world—and not just Muslims—see no sense in the First Amendment. Even other Western nations take a more circumspect position on freedom of expression than we do, realizing that often free speech must yield to other values and the need for order. Our own history suggests that they might have a point.

Posner, who is a University of Chicago law professor (!!!) goes on to characterize our First Amendment rights as “uneasy, historically contingent compromises, and a half-century of judicial decisions addressing domestic political dissent and countercultural pressures.” He argues that government should have the ability to restrict the distribution of “a video that causes violence abroad and damages America’s reputation.”

Since when does a video cause violence? And to what end should the government have the ability to control such speech?

In attempting to settle this debate, Posner hearkens back to the days of Woodrow Wilson and the progressives’ crackdown on Socialist espionage and enactment of the Sedition Act, which outlawed criminal anarchy and “scurrilous” and “abusive” language. This line of thinking was okay with liberal leftists until the 1960s when they relied on such means to convey their anti-war message. It was at this point, then, that the Left argued for fewer restrictions on speech. And now we’re back to wanting more?

Posner eloquently exemplifies the flaws in modern liberalism and its limited protection of America’s traditional & constitutional values — Free speech is only free when liberals agree with it.

The anti-Muslim video, “by the admission of all sides, has no value whatsoever,” Posner concludes. And perhaps it doesn’t. But then again, if we’re going to start only protecting speech based on its “value,” MSNBC would’ve been off the air a loooong time ago. Instead, I’d argue that the real value of the anti-Islam video rests in this debate: How free is our freedom of speech?

I certainly don’t agree with the film, but I will always stand for the filmmakers’ right to make it.

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Comments (18)

jcorbin_57
Posted on September 27, 2012 at 10:21am
Watched “The Project” this morning. At the conclusion I found myself praying that God would protect my country or at the least wake enough people to see what our government is doing to us. Fellow citizens I beg you to pray for our country, for once we lose, not only will we lose the freedom our founders so valiantly fought for but our very foundation of faith will be in jepoardy. We cannot afford to be spectators any more. We must get involved! Our country is crying for help and it needs us all. Democrats, Republicans, Independents this is still our country! I beg of you all to come together for this worthy cause. I pray God will move you and bless this land. I will be by your sides protecting our Constitution in whatever way I can.

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vickigh
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:33pm
” It was at this point, then, that the Left argued for fewer restrictions on speech. And now we’re back to wanting more?”

There is just no satisfying those people.

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Tom K
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:10pm
@ ERIC POSNER : Much better men than YOU have Died fighting for our Freedoms, including the First Ammendment. In fact the Bill of Rights are a statement of Freedoms given by God our Father in Heaven and none of these Freedoms is ” overvalued ” since Jesus Christ died for us. Me thinks your bloated self esteem is what is “overvalued “. America does not require professors with your lack of values. Posner the POSER. ha !

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batmanroxus
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:00pm
Movies don’t cause violence… people do.

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- batmanroxus
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:00pm
  ooops
  
  Report this comment
- vickigh
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 3:34pm
  Movies cause violence the same way guns do. I.E. they don’t. People cause violence.
  
  Report this comment
batmanroxus
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 2:58pm
Posner, who is a University of Chicago law professor, is a typical leftist thinker with their valuse and priorities screwed up… Movies don’t cause violence… people do.

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exposejesuits
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 2:57pm
‘In Himmler, I see our Ignatius of Loyola’ Adolph Hitler THE SOCIETY OF JESUS(JESUITS) HAVE BEEN EXPELLED FROM 83 COUNTRIES AND THEIR POPE IS ARAMIS AND HE IS ALSO KNOWN AS THE COUNT OF MONMTE CHRISTO(GENERAL OF THE JESUITS). The Jesuits were first expelled from France in 1773. They responded by starting the bavarian Illuminati through Adam Weishaupt on may 1st of 1776. Jesuits were expelled from France in 1902 which was Alexandre Dumas’s 100th birthday.

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exposejesuits
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 2:53pm
The Vatican invented Islam, to kill Christians and non-Catholics “The Vatican wanted to create a messiah for the Arabs, someone they could raise up as a great leader, a man with charisma whom they could train, and eventually unite all the non-Catholic Arabs behind him, creating a mighty army that would ultimately capture Jerusalem for the pope. In the Vatican briefing, Cardinal Bea told us this story:

‘A wealthy Arabian lady who was a faithful follower of the pope played a tremendous part in this drama. She was a widow named Khadijah. She gave her wealth to the church and retired to a convent, but was given an assignment. She was to find a brilliant young man who could be used by the Vatican to create a new religion and become the messiah for the children of Ishmael. Khadijah had a cousin named Waraquah,, who was also a very faithful Roman Catholic and the Vatican placed him in a critical role as Muhammad’s advisor. He had tremendous influence on Muhammad. While Muhammad was being prepared, he was told that his enemies were the Jews and that the only true Christians were Roman Catholic. He was taught that others calling themselves Christians were actually wicked impostors and should be destroyed. Many Muslims believe this. “In their “holy” book, the Koran, Christ is regarded as only a prophet. If the pope was His representative on earth, then he also must be a prophet of God.

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- exposejesuits
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 2:55pm
  Islam is not a peaceful religion! In Islamic Muslim Shite Sharia law.
  You have 3 choices.
  1. Convert to islam (however you’re considered a second class citizen)
  2. Become a slave and pay the Jiza (tax to Islam) still second class citizen.
  3. Be beheaded, hung or stoned.
  Islam is death.
  
  http://www.wnd.com/2012/07/muslim-group-wipe-christianity-from-face-of-earth/
  
  Report this comment
- exposejesuits
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 2:58pm
  The Bible puts the power of a local church into the hands of a Godly pastor. But
  the cunning Jesuits successfully managed over the years to remove that
  power into the hands of denomination headquarters, and have now pushed
  almost all of the Protestant denominations into the arms of the Vatican.
  This is exactly what Ignatius de Loyola set out to accomplish: a universal
  church and the end of Protestantism.
  As you read “The Secret History of the Jesuits,” you will see there is a
  parallel between the religious and political sectors. The author, Mr. Paris,
  reveals the penetration and infiltration of the Jesuits into the governments
  and nations of the world to manipulate the course of history by setting up
  dictatorships, and weakening democracies such as the United States of
  America, by paving the way for social, political, moral, military, educational
  and religious anarchy.
  
  Report this comment
environmentalandawake
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 2:32pm
They have and are calling Glenn Beck; provocateur, rabble-rouser, and lunatic for years, amongst other labels. Just be glad he exercises his “First Amendment Rights,” with what his predictions are starting to bear out! I am examining the future that the left visualizes. Have always felt that they are fascists; however the more I study their actions they seem to be forming something of a hybrid. It looks Marxist/Fascist/Fuedalistic in nature. Could it be that they really don’t know what they are doing, or are not actually organized as they seem to be. Maybe this division is their “Achilles Heal.”

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- exposejesuits
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 2:54pm
  The world is controlled by the Jesuits, Black Nobility, and the Vatican. The Jesuits are a military organization not a religious order. The vatican and the Jesuits are not Christianity. The New World Order is controlled by elite jesuits and the black pope Adolfo Nicolas. The world bankers are NOT top of the food chain. They all follow the jesuit order and follow the supreme jesuit general aka black pope Adolfo Nicolas. The other jesuit elites are Adolfo’s 6 generals which is known as his assistance. Adolfo directs and guide the white pope and tells him what to do and say. The white pope is not a christian. When Jesuits and the Vatican say they believe in God they are referring to Lucifer as the God. Christians have been fooled for centuries that the Vatican is pure and good when the Vatican and the Jesuits have destroyed sovereign nations across the globe. The illuminati was created by the Jesuits in the 1700′s because at that time Jesuitism was banned in 80 countries. People at that time knew the Vatican was corrupt and desired world dominance. A lot of ppl are now learnin about the new world order but they are being taught the fake jew banker world order. Yes i know world bankers have great power but they all follow the vatican. Think about it, every world leader goes to and respects the Vatican no matter what religion they believe in. The black pope Adolfo and his 6 generals control the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican Bank(richest bank in the world), space laws, marit
  
  Report this comment
- exposejesuits
  Posted on September 26, 2012 at 2:55pm
  “The Jesuits are a MILITARY organization, not a religious order. Their chief is a general of an army, not the mere father abbot of a monastery. And the aim of this organization is power, power in its most despotic exercise, absolute power, universal power, power to control the world by the volition of a single man [i.e., the Black Pope, the Superior General of the Jesuits]. Jesuitism is the most absolute of despotisms [sic] and at the same time the greatest and most enormous of abuses.”
  Napoleon I (i.e., Napoleon Bonaparte; 1769-1821; emperor of the French)
  
  Report this comment
anothercomment
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 1:53pm
“This is that Americans need to learn that the rest of the world-and not just Muslims-see no sense in the first Amendment.”
How do you explain the Dearborn, Michigan multinational Muslims residents stoning, cussing, and screaming at Christian residents when they are silently protesting in a ‘free-speech zone’?
What about the Egyptian woman defacing an approved subway sign with red spray paint; even spraying a woman attempting to prevent the defacement? Screaming that she is expressing her ‘free speech’ while she is arrested for her criminal behavior.
Ah, yes, “Free speech is only free when liberals agree with it.”
This argument is the first step, to be repeated, and reworded and repeated again, to wear down support of our 1st Amendment right. Once that amendment has been altered in response to the demands of the rest of the world, then 2nd Amendment will be targeted. And NATO has been given the responsibility to take action on this Amendment. In our life time it is possible that we will become Europe II

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NachtundNebel
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 12:43pm
Dear Mr. Posner; The first amendment is what makes America. Without that, this would be just another nation, in which people, without a voice, would resort to “other means of communication”. If your wish comes true, I would like the opportunity to express my displeasure with you in a non-verbal manner. Please remember, this is a center-right nation. It would not be good for liberals such as yourself to end your days in a refugee camp in Canada (if they’ll have you).

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yiska8
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 12:13pm
How convienient. How about Pro-choice zealots, angry gay militants, Code Pink, the Black Panthers, La Raza, illegal immigrants waving Mexican flags marching freely protesting in our streets, Peta, and artists who defame Christianity and statues of Jesus and Mary,and endless other liberal groups who throw free speech in our face???? Shut up and take it Libs. Free speech is a RIGHT and the film maker did nothing wrong. He made a crappy film in the USA. Hollywood churns out crap everyday anyway. Muslims are evil hypocrites and liberalism is a mental disorder anyway. The FIRST AMENDMENT works just fine as it should.

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IAMMADDOG
Posted on September 26, 2012 at 11:41am
“Slate’s Eric Posner who wonders if the United States “overvalues” the free speech rights enshrined in the Constitution’s First Amendment”

Yes we do…to the point of defending it to the death!

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