OPINION
In response to the Rotorua public library cancelling a drag performance for kids, the Free Speech Union released a statement:
Thugs’ veto is thugs’ veto is thugs’ veto. It doesn’t make a difference which side it’s coming from… this is what the shoe looks like on the other foot.”
Free Speech Union
First of all, they are simply wrong. Free speech doesn’t give you a right to play overtly sexual content for children. It’s shameful that the FSU continues to defend the groomers who openly reject free speech and have perpetrated much political violence against us. No violence was threatened by Brian Tamaki in return. He stated his intention to shut down the event through peaceful counter-protest. Protest is naturally disruptive. The only claims about ‘health and safety’ threats came from the council and the far left who constantly tell us that “words are violence”.
Part of the problem is the framework the FSU has for ‘free speech‘ includes public expression of any act with the only consideration being physical harm to others. They appear to take no consideration for age appropriateness either. This isn’t a coherent framework that can stand on its own feet. The classical view on free speech always excluded treasonous and blasphemous speech as things that threatened the very fabric of society. In addition, cultural norms must be maintained. A relevant case, currently under debate in Wellington, concerns whether mosques should be allowed to broadcast the Muslim ‘call to prayer’ five times a day. It’s not an attack on free speech or expression to say that this should be prohibited in a Christian country. You have no rights when society falls apart, so some kind of fencing to ensure that society remains functional is required – God, king and country always represented something sacred that had to remain out of bounds. In reality these sacred objects have not disappeared but merely been displaced by progressives with idols, such as diversity, equality and inclusion.
The hyper-individualism behind these value-neutral arguments that the FSU likes to make simply accelerate the destruction of society and the eventual death of free speech.
Free speech is not a civilisational suicide pact.
The most tone-deaf part that stuck with me was the comment that “this is what the shoe looks like on the other foot”. I’ve personally been affected over a dozen times by the cancel culture of the left. It is effective, disruptive and often violent. I must say it feels good to have the shoe on the other foot for a change. The people who are negatively affected by the latest rounds of protests from The Freedom and Rights Coalitions are all people who don’t believe in freedom of speech and actively seek to implement laws of repression against us.
It’s amazing how quickly the game has changed in the last six months. The stranglehold that the left wing had on politics and the media has been broken. We don’t hold the advantage by any means: the public service and institutional power are still almost entirely in enemy hands – but we have a little bit of breathing room. When the truth is on your side you don’t really need bias in your favour, because a level playing field is enough.
It started with Elon Musk purchasing Twitter to create a free-speech platform in X; it continued with a change in government where Winston Peters openly mocks “leftie shill” journalists and David Seymour revels in mass layoff for useless bureaucrats, and it goes on with successful lobby and protest action by Brian Tamaki against the ‘trans’ agenda.
That’s the one thing the Free Speech Union is right about: the shoe is on the other foot. The last thing we need now are concern trolls dragging us back down to the position of losers that we’ve worked so hard to escape from.