If you think we’re idiots…tell us why

There’s the straw man, the slur and a call to shut down the debate. That’s just what we see in Dr Susie O’Brien’s latest column.

In response to the reception her previous column received – in which she justified Julia Gillard’s vile attack on Tony Abbott, not on the grounds that he is a misogynist, but as a general rebuke of sexism – her critics are asked to back their opinions. She contends that people do NOT have a right to their opinion, unless they can justify it to her level of satisfaction. For elites such as our favourite expert in women’s studies, rights are provided by the state, and such, the right to freedom of speech can be taken away if your arguments cannot convince our intellectual and cultural superiors. Such groups whose God-given rights are forfeited by her include holocaust deniers and others whom she sees fit to be uttered in the same sentence – global warming deniers. I doubt Dr O’Brien is claiming a moral equivalence between these two groups, but its nice to be thrown in there with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

For O’Brien, the “objective facts” tell us that the climate is in fact changing. Thanks, Doc. Why’s it doing that? And, what exactly would these objective facts be? Alas, she doesn’t say. So, people who disagree with her have to back their claims, but she doesn’t? Does this mean she has to shut up about global warming from now on, I mean, according to her own standards?

Here is what free speech actually means. It means that anyone can speak whatever the hell they please short of defamation or inciting violence, without interference from the state. If what they say is uncomfortable, despicable or wrong, I don’t care. I will still defend that right. Unfortunately, our cultural elites don’t get this, and as such, we may soon have a News Media Council.

In a world run by Susie O’Brien, the likes of Burt Rutan and Richard Lindzen do not have the right to express their opinions. Makes sense. Rutan only puts men into space. Susie O’Brien has a PhD in women’s studies.

(Via: Andrew Bolt)