In light of what’s been going on with Twitter and Elon Musk recently, and the endless and exhausting go-nowhere discussions about free speech…from “Free Speech: Neither Real, Nor Your Right” (via Vox Day’s “Free Speech is Anti-Christ“):
Free speech is a myth. The keepers of America’s “golden legend” of free speech have been either dishonest with the public or dishonest with themselves about its authenticity. There is no such thing as “blanket free speech,” and the concept has been abused by the Left for generations.
No democracy, aristocracy, or even monarchy could ever truly proclaim or defend free speech for everyone. But in spite of this, the idea of free speech is utilized by corrupt elements of our society–in concert with malleable democratic laws–in order to demolish their opponents. There is no moral equity when it comes to this pretended natural right. There is only a tyranny of the majority.
I don’t agree with everything in the article, but it’s got some good insights.
“Rights” do not exist, as I’ve said before, in the way we commonly speak of them. They are just a statement of intent by a party; in this case, a government apparatus. It’s a description of how a party (the government) will use its exclusive claim of force. They are stating in which direction they will point their gun.
It’s no different than if I went up to anyone and said they have a right to hair, even if he were bald. He would wonder why a natural part of human existence is being labeled a “right,” and then wonder why someone is bothering to let him know what is plainly obvious. These brute facts of life don’t need stating, but stating that a man has a right to hair has more significance if a barber is saying it to the man in his chair. Entities don’t state your right to a “thing” unless they have the ability to take it away in the first place. You can see why, then, a oligarchy like the American government would be so accommodating to the cultural discussion of rights.