Keith Yost Gets It

by Adam Turner  •  Jul 15, 2010 at 11:13 am

https://www.legal-project.org/blog/2010/07/keith-yost-gets-it

In an opinion piece titled, Free speech in chains, written by a Keith Yost, a student at M.I.T., for the M.I.T. newspaper, The Tech, Mr. Yost eloquently speaks out against the war Islamist radicals are conducting against the free speech rights of Americans (and all others).

The critical paragraphs in his op-ed are:

"The line seems to keep getting pushed back further and further. With van Gogh, we discovered that we cannot criticize Islam. With Jyllands-Posten, we found that we cannot criticize our inability to criticize Islam. And now with South Park we find that we cannot even criticize our inability to criticize. Forget Islam for a moment (-) how is it that our society, which enshrines free speech as a fundamental right, came to self-censor a debate on self-censorship?

…There can be no lasting victory through the force of arms — until we create a level of mutual respect between our societies, until we win the debate being held at the kitchen tables of moderate Muslims, there will always be fresh bodies for the grist mill.

But how can we engage in such a debate when we restrict ourselves from participating? How can we pretend to preach tolerance and human rights when we betray our own ideals?"

Mr. Yost gets it. We can't keep restricting our speech in greater and greater amounts to be "tolerant" or to avoid upsetting the ever-so-delicate sensibilities of radical Islamists. Otherwise, our free speech rights will eventually disappear, to be followed by all of our other rights. And those Westerner's who claim otherwise, aren't really being tolerant. They are being cowardly. But like cowards everywhere, they seek to disguise their cowardice with fine words of principle.

Bravo, Mr. Yost.

I encourage you to read the entire opinion piece.

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