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Saturday, April 16, 2011

after a half-century or so of attacking even the notion of general principles of decency and acceptable public behavior ... that doesn’t work.



Glenn Reynolds makes the point that the Libertarian approach to speech has become so absolute that what couldonce be handled informally must either be ignored or turned into a criminal case.

See, you used to be able to punish the sort of behavior complained of here [referring to male taunts of women] on the ground that it violated general principles of decency and acceptable public behavior. But after a half-century or so of attacking even the notion of general principles of decency and acceptable public behavior — especially where sex is concerned! — that doesn’t work.

Universities have long told the larger culture that it must simply put up with whatever is said, however offensive, in the interest of free expression. Now we see more evidence that that was always a lie, a self-serving cover story that was really meant simply to protect speech that the larger culture didn’t want to hear, with no intention to protect speech that people at universities don’t want to hear. Universities, meanwhile, have become some of the most hostile environments for free speech anywhere in America.
That's why I'm not a Libertarian, and I suspect in their heart of hearts most Libertarians are not either.

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