Freedom of Speech - is Andrew Moodie really such a total ass?
TVO has broadcast, wonderfully, parts of a debate at the University of Toronto's Hart House, basically on the proposition that hate speech in Canada should be decriminalized NB: There are three links preceding this - follow them all.). Along the way Christopher Hitchens participated tub-thumpingly and deliciously tried to provoke us Canadians to arrest him under our stupid hate law. We did not. And the voting students agreed with him.What appalled and stunned me was the self-satisifed, lip-licking, and utterly ignorant behaviour of the series host, Andrew Moodie (whom, until then, I had moderately respected), summarizing the show. (See about 3 mins 50 secs into the last item linked to above. I love the comments at the site - dipshit, he should read Voltaire. In the end he proves himself to be an ass.)
He suggested Hitchens has never been on the receiving end of hate speech. Hmm, I think Hitchens made it clear he had received death threats - do those count? Hitchens is an atheist - I can assure Mr. Moodie that we atheists have a long history of receiving a fair bit of what would be called hate speech. Has Hitchens asked the state to stop the hate speakers? I think not. I certainly never have and would regard it is ridiculous to do so.
What planet does Moodie live on and why is his employment continuing? OK maybe it is not. We shall see in a month or so. But he, or his writer, is an ass. And I do not need to hear more of this fatuous pontification. (BTW - note the consistency of the YouTube comments on this!)
Why would TVO employ someone to introduce and extroduce a show on free speech who has no idea what it means?
posted by Alan Adamson @ 6:13 PM
3 Comments:
When you say, "and the voting students agreed with him," do you mean they agreed with Hitch or with Moodie.
When you say, "and the voting students agreed with him," do you mean they agreed with Hitch or with Moodie?
Yes that was ambiguous - Hitchens.
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