Sunday, April 27, 2008

Free Speech Is NOT Total

Freedom of speech doesn't mean you can come into my living room and "peddle your opinion," if I don't want you to do so. The right to exclude people from making speeches in places you own is part and parcel of the right to property. Liberals seem to think "free speech" means they can say what they want, anywhere, without consequences. That's not the way it works. Free speech means simply they can say what they want in PUBLIC, or anywhere else where it is ALLOWED by the property owner, without being put in jail or executed BY THE GOVERNMENT. That's ALL it means. Liberals are well known for banning people from speaking in THEIR venues if they don't agree with what they say. Maybe they should learn that the same rules apply to EVERYBODY. (Tibor Machan, in The Atlasphere, 11/24/06) [Tibor Machan is the R. C. Hoiles Professor of Business Ethics & Free Enterprise at Chapman University's Argyros School of B&E and is a research fellow at the Pacific Research Institute (San Francisco, CA) and the Hoover Institution (Stanford University, CA).]

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