On Wed, 29 Mar 2000 23:49:08 -0500 Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
writes:
> James Farmelant wrote:
>
> >Which goes to show that "liberals" and "social democrats" can be
> just
> >as deadly enemies of freedom of the press and freedom of speech as
> >Tories or Republicans, nay even more dangerous since they can
> >cloak their repesssiveness with a progressive-sounding veneer.
>
> Who are you talking about? I don't know of any social democrats or
> American liberals who approve of British libel law.
Which didn't stop them from making use of it when it suited their purposes. Anyway, Doug I would suggest that it is necessary here to go beyond the rhetoric of liberals or social democrats and look at what they actually do when they possess political power. The record belies their civil libertarian rhetoric. Here in the US, the Clinton Administration has managed to successfully pass all sorts of "anti-terrorist" legislation without barely a peep from his liberal supporters.
> Most of the
> "free
> speech" fanatics you're likely to come across are soc dems/liberals
> or wacky libertarians.
Maybe so, but the record of soc dems or liberals in office is not conspiciously better than that of conservatives. Again, we must go beyond the rhetoric. After all, you have reminded about the abuses against civil liberties that have been pereptuated in NYC by Guiliani's Administration which until recently enjoyed the solid support of liberal Democrats in NYC who were quite willing to accept the costs of his policies in exchange for "order."
Jim F.
>
> Doug
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