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Steyn on Free Expression
Should the validity of scientific proposals be decided in a court of law? Should policy be decided the same way? The great Mark Steyn has posted a new video interview on the most important free speech case of our time:
Published in Law, Science & TechnologyThis is the difference between the rest of the English-speaking world and the United States: There’s a constitutional, absolute right to free expression. But that’s of limited value in a litigious society where people can tie you up in court for five to ten years. And it’s of even less value if actually you lose the spirit of vigorous public discourse. And that’s my concern, too: That on climate change and many other issues, there’s no point in having absolute freedom of speech if, as a practical matter, public discourse shrivels to an ever-narrower range of public opinion.
Here’s my writing on the matter. NR used to take a very different attitude to these kinds of lawsuits-
Betcha we won’t see Mark on Uncommon Knowledge any time soon.
Definitely the same methodology as was used for determining who were commie fellow travelers back in the 1950s.
aardo vozz, if you don’t know it already, Steyn has a book out called Climate Change: The Facts with essays from many prominent scientists on the scientific questions at hand.
Even more fun is his collection “A Disgrace to the Profession”: The World’s Scientists, In Their Own Words, On Michael E. Mann, His Hockey Stick, And Their Damage To Science in which Steyn gives the context and then allows the other scientists to speak for themselves. With cartoons!… As Daily Kos says, “Most people would refrain from adding fuel to the fire if being sued by someone for attacking them. Steyn, however, is not most people.”
Thank you. I am aware of the books and look forward to ordering them and reading them. :)
MamaT,
thanks for the post, I always enjoy Mark’s handiwork. Probably time to buy another book.