Free not to make nice
by digby
A dazed and confused Bobby Jindal feeds the persecution complex:
“Make no mistake — the war over religious liberty is a war over free speech. Without the first, there is no such thing as the second.”
He then discussed the Duck Dynasty controversy. “You may think that I was defending the Robertsons simply because I am the governor of their home state, the great state of Louisiana,” he said. “You would be wrong about that. I defended them because they have every right to speak their minds.”
The real issue is that “liberals” are doing everything in their power to “silence debate.” The new left in America is completely intolerant of people of faith,” Jindal said. “The left no longer wants to debate. They simply want to silence us.”
Without religious liberty there is no such thing as free speech? Ok...
I won't bother to point out for the umpteenth time that free speech is only protected from censorship by the government. I'm sure Jindal has no problem defending private businesses from firing people who say things the owner doesn't like.
But that's a technical, legal argument. His greater point is that the left is trying to keep people from speaking out if they have cultural differences with them. Perhaps that's so. They often raise a stink when right wingers trash talk and insult them. And so does the right.
That's the ultimate purpose of freedom of speech, you foolish man. Both sides can raise a stink against the other one if they want to and the government has no say in it. Let the insults fly and the boycotts roll. Everybody get mad as hell. It's as American as Krispy Kreme.
This never gets old: