Your Right to Say It

And now, for the inaugural session of…

SHUT THE HELL UP!!!

Who would receive such a message? Not necessarily stuff I disagree with, although sometimes it is. Just stuff I’m sick of hearing and so are you.

Ironically, who should shut the hell up today? People who recite that stupid Voltaire quote practically every other sentence. You know the one.

“I don’t agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”

First off, it’s not a Voltaire quote. It’s been falsely attributed to him. I forget who actually said it, but it wasn’t Voltaire. Pay attention.

Now, getting to the real point in all this, I might mention that what’s in that quote is good policy. No denying that. What is irritating as hell is how it is used. Yes, I ranted once before about people using famous quotes as their whole argument, and I’m about to do it again, but in a more concentrated spot. Just as well. No one seemed to understand what the hell I was talking about last time anyway. Morons.

Dumbass Scenario #1:
Moron A: “You’re a fucking idiot!”
Moron B: “Don’t call me a fucking idiot, asswipe.”
Moron A: “Hey! You have no right to call me an asswipe. I have every right to call you a fucking idiot. Free speech. ‘I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.'”

See what just happened there? Blatant hypocrisy. Moron A protected himself with the Free Speech card there, yet did not acknowledge Moron B having that same right, whether he would admit or realize it or not.

Dumbass Scenario #2:
Moron A: “I hate black people!”
Moron B: “Hey, take your hate speech and shove it up your ass.”
Moron C: “Don’t be like that. It may be hate speech, but it’s still free speech. Remember what Voltaire said. ‘While I don’t agree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it.'”
Moron A: “Gay people are evil and will burn in hell.”
Moron C: “What! You fucking bigot. Keep your filthy hateful mouth shut.”

More hypocrisy. Applying conditions to free speech based on personal beliefs and preferences. Furthermore, dragging that quote into the mess like it somehow adds importance to our First Amendment. Also, you may have noticed by now that each time the quote has been said here, it has been worded differently. That’s because nobody ever knows how to word it right. Doesn’t surprise me. Just adds to their already vast stupidity.

I could give more scenarios, but they’d be the same basic thing. The point? You assholes repeat this stupid line (incorrectly most of the time) to make yourselves sound sophisticated and patriotic, but you never even follow it. You’re just using a roundabout way of defending your own ridiculous point of view while trying to silence your opposition. That’s hardly practicing free speech, let alone defending it to the death.

Oh, and let’s touch on that last little bit of it right now. Defending it to the death? Not one person I know has been anywhere near a position of being able to defend free speech at the risk of losing their lives. No. You “defend” it in the safest possible environments, such as internet message boards and chats. Maybe you should be saying “I don’t agree with what you say, but I’ll pretend to defend it at risk of being banned.”

And even if these people did continue this into in-person situations, chances are they’d wuss out before long. To the death, my ass. When you publish a book or otherwise publicly say something that causes a bunch of fascists to aim guns at you, and you refuse to retract your statements, THEN you can say you defend it to the death. That would be noble. Complaining that a post of yours on a message board got deleted, is not.

Basically, you asshats are just turning a rather nice quote about freedom of speech into another way of saying “I’m a hypocritical, arrogant loser.”

Great going, shithead.