In 1999 all the important people insisted that freedom of expression required taxpayers to fund art exhibitions which offended their religious sensibilities, desecrated sacred images, and exploited the rape and murder of children.
In 2019, we see the same crowd urging restrictions on speech. A former editor of Time is willing to consider blasphemy laws:
Sensation
Hillary Clinton spoke up for the museum, as did the New York Civil Liberties Union. The editorial board of The New York Times said, Giuliani's stance "promises to begin a new Ice Age in New York's cultural affairs." The paper also carried a full-page advertisement in support signed by over 100 actors, writers and artists, including Susan Sarandon, Steve Martin, Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, Kurt Vonnegut and Susan Sontag.
A better, a fairer, a more important question is this: Did the MSM, the professors, the artists and writers, etc. etc. ever really believe in free expression?
Even the most sophisticated Arab diplomats that I dealt with did not understand why the First Amendment allows someone to burn a Koran. Why, they asked me, would you ever want to protect that?
It’s a fair question.
Or did they just need an impartial sounding argument to license their privilege to "do what thou wilt"?
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