I had been planning on ranting about this topic for quite some time. A recent post I read on another weblog made me finally take the plunge. Things have been heating up in a certain corner of the blog universe. Someone posted something. Then when they got some criticism about what they posted, they took it personally. They viewed that criticism as personal attacks. They started deleting negative comments and criticism, and even banned several readers, which is no less than censorship. Then they had the gall to whine about their First Amendment rights being violated, and people trying to suppress their freedom of speech, simply because they were criticised for what they said. THAT HITS A NERVE.

Freedom of expression means that you have the right to express yourself without fear of persecution, not fear of criticism. The notion that criticism equates with censorship is ludicrous. As a matter of fact, criticism is a celebration of their freedom of speech, not a suppression of it.

The notion that someone has the right to say what they feel without any accountability what-so-ever is a rather new phenomena that has been creeping in from the left. Those that preach 'tolerance' of others are typically the first ones to scream persecution whenever someone disagrees with what they have to say.

Lets say I take the position that the world is actually a giant disc on the backs of four huge elephants. And those four elephants are standing on a giant turtle that is swimming through space. Lets say I present this position and all sorts of evidence to support it. People would probably start saying I was a crackpot, and an idiot, or that I was living in a fantasy world. I would definitely get some criticism. That criticism however, is not a suppression of freedom.

You see, even though I have the right to speak out for what I believe in, you have the right to judge me and hold me accountable for what I say. You have the right to hate me. You have the right to refuse to hire me for a job, or vote me out of public office. You have the right to turn off my TV show, walk out of the movie I star in, or refuse to eat in my restaurant. You even have the right to complain to my employer, and tell them you won't buy their products as long as I work for them. You may support me and my right to voice my opinion, you may ignore me, or you may exercise your right to speak out against me. Regardless of your actions, my right to speak out has not been infringed. Even if your opposition causes me to lose my job, my family, my livelihood, that is the price I pay for my freedom.

Let me give you a better example. Lets say your wife comes home from the beauty salon with a new hair cut, and you think it looks horrible. Naturally, the first thing she does is ask you how she looks. What are you going to do? Are you going to exercise your freedom of expression, and tell her it looks like someone attacked her with a weed wacker? If you do, the price you pay for freely expressing your opinion may include sleeping on the couch, or going to bed without supper. Does that mean she's taking away your freedom of expression? No. It simply means that everything has a price. You can pay the price and tell her what you really think, or you can bite your tongue and live to pay the price some other day. (Like when your mother-in-law comes to visit)