[lbo-talk] "Freedom" of fascist speech is an absurdity

Scissors MacGillicutty scissorsmacgillicutty at gmail.com
Mon Feb 6 23:10:16 PST 2006


IIRC, Karl Popper makes a similar argument to Charles' buried in a footnote at the end of v. 1 of _The Open Society_. Tolerance of diverse and conflicting views is for Popper fundamental to his def'n of an open society. Rejection of said tolerance amounts to an attack on a fundamental property of open societies and is therefore an attack on open societies themselves; therefore Popper says they can be put down.

My copy of the book is boxed up in preparation for a move, so I can't check it.

The argument doesn't sit well with me, but I haven't found a good rebuttal. On the other hand, it does highlight that a to oppose the right to dissent—maybe more accurate to say a statement that opposes the right to dissent—is a different beast from a dissenting statement plain and simple. I suppose that formally it would be considered a meta-statement over the set of statements about an issue.

Make of this what you will. I read Popper on Adorno (and some other people associated with the so-called Frankfurt School) and it seemed Popper was either (a) misinformed or (b) dishonest.

Make of this what you will.

smg On 2/6/06, Charles Brown <cbrown at michiganlegal.org> wrote:


> CB: I use absurd here to mean self-contradictory. If one values freedom of
> speech so highly , it would contradict that high evaluation to support those
> who seek to abolish the freedom of speech, the very thing valued so highly.
> If those who seek to abolish the freedom of speech succeed in their effort,
> something you value most highly will be destroyed. It's elevating this
> specific group's freedom to speak above everybody's else's freedom to speak,
> because this group is using its speech to advocate institution of a form of
> government that will do away with the protection of freedom of speech.
> Fascists, by definition, eliminate freedom of speech.



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