Re: Censorial leftists (Was: Interesting article)

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 9:44 AM -0700 12/3/97, Tim May wrote:

>Labelled speech will be the touchstone for the next couple of decades of
>debate about censorship, hurtful speech, and mandatory voluntary
>self-ratings.
>
>"But you can say anything you wish, provided you voluntarily and accurately
>self-label your words, and provided none of the protected class members are
>offended or insulted."

I should add a brief anecdote about the mind-set these people have.

In the early 90s the city of Santa Cruz, CA, considered an "appearance
discrimination" law. It was aimed at banning discrimination on the basis of
appearance.

The cited examples were of restaurants and other businesses in town which
had rules against employees wearing nose rings, tongue studs, spiky hair,
mohawks, lip piercings, tatoos, scarification, and such things.  And
"weight discrimination," as in the also-famous case of a Santa Cruz health
food store turning down the employment application of a "person of
poundage." (The grossly obese Toni Cassista, who sued the health food store
citing weight discrimination...I believe she eventually settled out of
court.)

Inasmuch as the U.S. has not quite yet reached the point where such
"appearance discrimination" is barred under Title 7 of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act, the city fathers and mothers considered having their own
appearance discrimination law.

It was eventually tabled. Much national attention got focussed on it, as
some of you may recall. ("What will Santa Cruz think of next?")

I attended one of the public hearings, held in the Civic Center before a
crowd of several hundred. Those who spoke pubically, during the hours-long
public input, were apoplectically insistent that thoughtcrime be purged,
that restaurants and other businesses be forced to hire those with extreme
body decoration, piercing, tatooing, and such.

A woman I vaguely knew from science fiction circles, who had divorced her
husband and become a Radical Dyke (tm), summarized the view of the crowd:

"The First Amendment gives these bigots the right to think anything they
wish. But it doesn't give them the right to act on their bigoted thoughts
publically."


This view is, I think, the increasingly common view of the Left: that the
First Amendment is about private thoughts, but that public expressions of
such thoughts, either in published form or in hiring and firing decisions,
etc., is not covered by the First Amendment.

Sadly, if the Civil Rights Act is upheld, they are probably correct. Any
public utterance or publication of certain politically incorrect thoughts
is likely to be viewed as a violation of the "civil rights" of some
aggrieved minority.

(I, of course, would like to see all parts of the Civil Rights Act except
those dealing directly with _governmental_ discrimination against certain
races or gender, struck down. The Civil Rights Act should only be about
government allowing equal access to voting booths, publically-funded
facilities, etc. It should not interfere with a person's right to associate
with whom he wishes, to hire and fire whomever he wishes, and to serve or
sell to whomever he wishes. Without these rights, there is no real freedom.)

--Tim May

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