The ACLU Retreats From Free Expression

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

Wonder why the ACLU has been silent about free speech/expression no more.. it's officially dead with the left, the last to fall being its most ardent defenders of free speech who'd even defend the speech of mankind's worst, now saying speech is harmful, telling you how astronomical their about-face is. 

 

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The organization declares that speech it doesn’t like can ‘inflict serious harms’ and ‘impede progress.’

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The American Civil Liberties Union has explicitly endorsed the view that free speech can harm “marginalized” groups by undermining their civil rights. “Speech that denigrates such groups can inflict serious harms and is intended to and often will impede progress toward equality,” the ACLU declares in new guidelines governing case selection and “Conflicts Between Competing Values or Priorities.”

This is presented as an explanation rather than a change of policy, and free-speech advocates know the ACLU has already lost its zeal for vigorously defending the speech it hates. ACLU leaders previously avoided acknowledging that retreat, however, in the apparent hope of preserving its reputation as the nation’s premier champion of the First Amendment.

But traditional free-speech values do not appeal to the ACLU’s increasingly partisan progressive constituency—especially after the 2017 white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. The Virginia ACLU affiliate rightly represented the rally’s organizers when the city attempted to deny them a permit to assemble. Responding to intense post-Charlottesville criticism, last year the ACLU reconsidered its obligation to represent white-supremacist protesters.

The 2018 guidelines claim that “the ACLU is committed to defending speech rights without regard to whether the views expressed are consistent with or opposed to the ACLU’s core values, priorities and goals.” But directly contradicting that assertion, they also cite as a reason to decline taking a free-speech case “the extent to which the speech may assist in advancing the goals of white supremacists or others whose views are contrary to our values.”

 

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All this is the ACLU’s prerogative. Organizations are entitled to revise their values and missions. But they ought to do so openly. The ACLU leadership had apparently hoped to keep its new guidelines secret, even from ACLU members. They’re contained in an internal document deceptively marked, in all caps, “confidential attorney client work product.” I’m told it was distributed to select ACLU officials and board members, who were instructed not to share it. According to my source, the leadership is now investigating the “leak” of its new case-selection guidelines. President Trump might sympathize.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-aclu-retreats-from-free-expression-1529533065

[Ban Hammer 12,899]

some speech is more equal than others.

[Ironclad43 131]

The ACLU was never about that anyway.

[Dashinka 23,402]

3 hours ago, Ban Hammer said:

some speech is more equal than others.

Said George Orwell.  Gotta love fascism.

[Ironclad43 131]

21 hours ago, Dashinka said:

Said George Orwell.  Gotta love fascism.

the BBC is taking down his statue now because "his themes don't align with the BBC's values"

 

irony of ironies  

 

p.s. i do love fascism

[laylalex 7,265]

32 minutes ago, Ironclad43 said:

the BBC is taking down his statue now because "his themes don't align with the BBC's values"

 

That's not true: https://www.mediaite.com/news/no-a-george-orwell-statue-isnt-being-removed-for-offending-journalists/

[Dashinka 23,402]

1 hour ago, laylalex said:

That's not true: https://www.mediaite.com/news/no-a-george-orwell-statue-isnt-being-removed-for-offending-journalists/

Give it time.  Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln statues are under attack, heck there’s was an abolitionist statue in PA that was attacked, the fascist will get to Orwell eventually.

[laylalex 7,265]

40 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

Give it time.  Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln statues are under attack, heck there’s was an abolitionist statue in PA that was attacked, the fascist will get to Orwell eventually.

The important thing to note here is that this did NOT happen, and people spread it around like it was real. It was meant to be a joke, apparently, but it looks like at least one person in this thread thought it was real. 

[Dashinka 23,402]

8 minutes ago, laylalex said:

The important thing to note here is that this did NOT happen, and people spread it around like it was real. It was meant to be a joke, apparently, but it looks like at least one person in this thread thought it was real. 

That is what social media does.

[laylalex 7,265]

Quite a nice article about the placement of the statue with some background about Orwell's time at the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41886208

[Ironclad43 131]

3 hours ago, laylalex said:

That's not true: https://www.mediaite.com/news/no-a-george-orwell-statue-isnt-being-removed-for-offending-journalists/

I'm always happy to be wrong! Thank God I am this time.

 

 

[Ban Hammer 12,899]

2 hours ago, Dashinka said:

Give it time.  Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln statues are under attack, heck there’s was an abolitionist statue in PA that was attacked, the fascist will get to Orwell eventually.

 

Robert the Bruce statue at Bannockburn daubed with Black Lives Matter graffiti

The graffiti labeled Robert a “racist king”, and called for the statue’s removal.

 

 

apparently other statues are in peril too.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/crime/robert-bruce-statue-bannockburn-daubed-black-lives-matter-graffiti-2882737

 

[laylalex 7,265]

2 minutes ago, Ban Hammer said:

 

Robert the Bruce statue at Bannockburn daubed with Black Lives Matter graffiti

The graffiti labeled Robert a “racist king”, and called for the statue’s removal.

 

 

apparently other statues are in peril too.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/crime/robert-bruce-statue-bannockburn-daubed-black-lives-matter-graffiti-2882737

 

The Robert the Bruce one is kind of silly, but there are better targets for discussing Scotland's role in the slave trade. We've been talking about it over the past day or two, and I really hadn't given it much thought until very recently. This is a well-balanced, non-inflammatory article from the center-right Scotsman on the topic: https://www.scotsman.com/news/uk-news/amnesia-denial-and-awakening-black-lives-matter-stirs-scotland-confronting-its-ties-slavery-2883767

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

It's about time the EU is taking heat for being a bunch of racists and slavists.

[laylalex 7,265]

Scotland is no longer part of the EU after Brexit.