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Free Speech and Sexual Harassment Laws
Dear Editor,
Re: "The Clash Between Free Speech and Harassment Law" -- by Anthony Keller
-- April 13, 1998 -- The Globe and Mail
Anthony Keller highlights an extremely dangerous development: the destruction of
free speech (i.e., censorship) in the name of protecting people from "offensive
language and images." To allegedly prevent "hostile" work environments,
so-called harassment laws have created a reign of terror in the workplace where anything
anyone says or displays can be construed as offensive to somebody.
When I was a kid we used to say: "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names
will never hurt me." In other words, names left you physically unharmed and
free to ignore the name caller, but a physical assault (including physical threats
and harassment) did not and thus provided an objective standard for crime. Using
"hurt feelings" as the standard renders crime totally subjective, leaving
people at the mercy of neurotics and manipulators (i.e., power lusters).
Old laws protected people from assault and battery, which covers real harassment.
The new "harassment" laws are designed specifically (by modern intellectuals
a la "political correctness") to obliterate the distinction between physical
coercion and "hurt feelings" in order to hand neurotics and power lusters
the political power to destroy free speech and, necessarily, all individual rights.
The road to dictatorship is always paved with smiling faces and good intentions.
Sincerely,
Glenn Woiceshyn
© 1998 Glenn Woiceshyn.
All rights reserved. This article can be found on-line at at http://www.capitalism.org/glennw. |
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