Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The "Tsesis thesis" deconstructed

One of the blogs I follow is Blazing Cat Fur, which does a great job of sleuthing stuff pertaining to the freedom of speech brouhaha going on in our northern neighbor, ignited by various Islamic groups' complaints to the Canadian federal, and various provincial, Human Rights Commissions.

A recent find was this article by Anuj C. Desai, which does a superb job of exposing the flawed reasoning of Alexander Tsesis, author of Destructive Messages: How Hate Speech Paves the Way for Harmful Social Movements, in advocating for hate speech legislation. So why should we care about an obscure book by an unknown law professor? Because Mr. Tsesis's work provides the underpinnings for legislative proposals by Ted Kennedy to criminalize "hate speech" right here in the U. S. of A. Ted is, of course, a supporter of one of Mr. Tsesis's fellow Chicagoans, one Barack Obama.

In other words, as Mr. Desai astutely pointed out, Tsesis's thesis is "... one that Americans will increasingly have to grapple with ..."

2 comments:

Blazingcatfur said...

Hi Mike thanks for the link!

Robert W. said...

Mike,

I'm most impressed that you, as American, are following this very scary time in Canada's history. As I've stated elsewhere, I do not believe this is really a battle between Muslims and non-Muslims. Rather, it is a battle between ultra left-wing social activists and those of us who believe in Free Speech and freedom.

The fact that the former have adopted the moniker "Progressives" is a deep, deep irony.

Robert

P.S. Chicago is my favourite city in the U.S. and I get there often. The next time I'm there, I'd love to buy you lunch and discuss these issues further.