There is a difference between condemning an example of free speech [View all]

[Plaid Adder]

Last edited Sat Sep 15, 2012, 03:38 PM - Edit history (1)

and jailing the person who engaged in it.

I'm just pointing this distinction out, since it seems to be evaporating in some of the threads I see about Terry Jones's "film."

Look, the First Amendment is one sentence long and it goes like this:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Nothing any of the US Government representatives have said during this crisis has indicated that Congress is considering making a law that will prohibit assholes like Terry Jones from making or distributing their assholic diatribes. And that is just as well, because in the digital age, trying to deal with shit like this by suppressing it is always going to be a losing battle anyway.

To say, "this is some bad fucking speech, and the speaker is one monumentally irresponsible asshole whose sentiments in no way reflect the official stance of the US government" is not the same thing as saying "this speaker does not have the right to say this." THe US Government is not compelled to defend every crazy thing every crazy American says. It is only compelled, by the first amendment, not to prosecute people who use speech in ways the government considers dangerous, counterproductive, or inimical to US interests (or to the self-interest of the individuals running the government).

What is the point of making a "film" like _Innocence of Muslims_? Obviously the point is to bait Islamic extremists into engaging in violent action which can then provoke a political backlash convenient to Jones and his fellow-lunatics. And it looks at first glance as if it has succeeded; but the evidence suggests that the attack on the Libyan embassy was not actually motivated by the film, and that the film is merely serving as a pretext which can conveniently be used to justify aggressive action on the part of Islamist extremists. In that sense, the makers of the film and its targets are actually collaborating, since thanks to this "film" both extremist constituencies now have what they want.

The argument that films such as this should be banned because they lead to violent deaths is a) impractical (try banning anything in this day and age) and b) potentially dangerous (Batman Rises led to violent deaths too; I don't think anyone needs the law that woudl be created by an attempt to define what actually makes a film bannable on that grounds).

ON EDIT: I didn't think I needed to point this out, but apparently I do: Condemning the film is also not the same as saying that the group of heavily armed militants who attacked the Benghazi embassy and killed four people were justified in doing so. Responsibility is not a zero-sum game, and extending it to include Terry Jones and his ilk does not somehow magically relieve the attackers of theirs. First of all, as I said above, plenty of evidence suggests the Benghazi attack was not actually motivated by the film, though the film provides the attackers with a pretext. Second, even if it was, that doesn't justify murder. I would have thought these things were obvious. But then if they were I suppose Mitt wouldn't have tried his initial gambit.

The fact that Jones et al. have a legal right to make this film, however, does not imply that making this film is ethically defensible. The issue there is not so much the bigoted and mendacious attack on Islam (though I would argue that bigotry is never ethically defensible) as the fact that given recent history it is so obvious that such a film would provide a pretext for anti-American violence on the part of Islamic extremists that one is forced to conclude that provoking such violence must have been part of the filmmakers' intention. And that's not only dangerous, it's disgusting.

Apparently even Mitt is criticizing the film, now that he's figured out how badly he fucked himself up with that press conference. So evidently even he can now grasp the distinction, though he previously worked hard to erase it.

The Plaid Adder