A very troubling article appears in today’s IHT. It seems that there is no end of dupes and cynics willing to hand over our right to free speech so that they might force men to employ civility in their discourse, and to censure thoughts and words they find inconvenient.

It is absolutely appalling that anyone would want to allow government to regulate what opinions one might hold, and how they might advocate their beliefs.

It is no surprise that practitioners of government, the great usurper of liberty, would covet the power to eliminate dissent of all kinds. It is surprising that most people fail to understand the fundamental nature of this most critical right, and that the author of this piece purposefully takes no position on bald-faced tyranny being suggested as a preferable replacement for liberty.

You have a right to believe any ridiculous thing that enters your perverse mind - including thinking that ‘hate-speech’ must be eliminated at the cost of my god-given right to speak my mind. Try and implement these policies, and you will bring the rage of free people down upon you. My fundamental rights will not be abridged because you, in ignorance, find stifling beliefs you find inconvenient to be expedient.

There is no possible speech a man can utter more odious than attempts by the state to make men espouse something other than what he in good conscience believes, under the threat of violence for having the temerity to have beliefs not shared by the majority.