A tale of free speech
The newspaper boycott of Scott Adams, creator of comic strip "Dilbert" for racist views
Free speech at work.
Scott Adams, creator of comic strip “Dilbert,” advised White people to “get the hell away from Black people,” and disparaged Black Americans collectively as “a hate group.” Those noxious words were protected speech shielded from government retaliation by the First Amendment. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes elaborated in United States v. Schwimmer, “if there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought—not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.”
More free speech at work.
Hundreds of newspapers dropped “Dilbert.” The company that had syndicated the strip, Andrews McMeel Universal, severed its relationship with Adams because “we will never support any commentary rooted in discrimination or hate.” Adams’ book publisher and book agent followed suit.”
The First Amendment protects the right of private parties to refrain from associating with views or ideas they abhor. Thus, in Hurley v. Irish-American Gay Group, the Supreme Court prohibited Massachusetts from requiring the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council to permit an openly gay-lesbian-bisexual organization to participate in a St. Patrick’s Day-Evacuation Day Parade. Similarly, the High Court held in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, that California could not compel pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to inform women of opportunities for state-subsidized abortions.
And even more free speech.
Elon Musk, owner of social media giant Twitter, grunted loud noises in support of Mr. Adams: “The media is racist…For a very long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians.” (Is Mr. Musk already afflicted with amnesia? He is part of the media and enthusiastically embraces Scott’s white supremacy).
I was disinvited to speak to the Harvard Law School Forum on war powers because an anonymous student was traumatized that I was unconvinced that the terrible deaths of World War I proved an Armenian genocide as set forth in the Genocide Convention to exclude politically motivated killings. The Forum was constitutionally protected in disassociating with me because of viewpoint.
I have written literally hundreds of unpublished letters to the editor to The Washington Post and New York Times over the years addressing unconstitutional presidential wars, unconstitutional executive agreements substituting for treaties, and the flagrantly wrongful interpretation of Article 5 of NATO that the United States is compelled to defend militarily any member nation that is attacked. Newspapers like other media outlets are entitled under the First Amendment to censor viewpoints with which they disagree according to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Miami Herald v. Tornillo.
Republican conservative wimps who whine like little children over censorship of their views by social media need to grow up and learn the First Amendment. Their hypocrisy is breathtaking. They admire Donald Trump, a man notorious for refusing to associate with any detractor of his views, which he has a First Amendment right to do.
I am always surprised when I refuse to sign a petition - and the petitioner gets pissed. I always explain that ‘you’ the petitioner has a right to present it but I, under the umbrella of the same principles that protect your rights, have the right NOT to sign it.
Too often we think of freedom as the right to do what WE want but are distressed by the notion that freedom also means we have the freedom not to do what YOU want.
You always have the right to express yourself and I always have the right (personally or in my privately owned business) not to listen, support, or amplify your BS.
Can you smell the freedom? Sometimes it’s pleasant and sometimes it stinks!