M-103 Protests

So I want to state my 2¢ regarding Motion (not Bill) M-103, and some of the protests that happened yesterday here in Canada.

First off I’ve had a bellyful of hypocrites who take great delight in skewering Christianity and Judaism, but think Islam is sacrosanct. I’ve also had it up to here with hypocrites who denounce fascism and the far right, while espousing communism and the far left. And I’m sick of those who, when they’re incapable of forming a cogent argument, resort to the easy out of crying “racism” or “bigotry”. To label anyone who disagrees with your viewpoint as “alt-right” or “neo-nazi” smacks of intellectual laziness.

Free speech is one of the most fundamental building blocks of our society. Free speech isn’t merely the viewpoints you agree with. It’s also the ugly views that make you uncomfortable.

I’m hardly a racist. I abhor violence against people based on their minority status, skin colour, sexuality, etc. I like the fact that I live in a country made up of people from all over the world, some of whom have become friends. It’s broadened my horizons immeasurably. I like that Canada is a largely tolerant and peaceful nation. I never want it to be anything else.

But I also feel that while people deserve to be protected, their ideas deserve to be held up to any and all scrutiny. Criticism for viewpoints that fly in the face of a tolerant and peaceful society deserve to be aired. That includes Islam. It deserves to be criticized, and frankly, ridiculed, like every other religion. I don’t particularly care if that offends someone. Islam is not something that can’t be changed like someone’s ethnicity. Islam is a religion, that like every other religion, has no evidence to back it up. Its fundamentalist adherents, like the fundamentalist adherents of every other philosophy, need to be held in check. No matter how much they may not like it.

Sure, let refugees into this country. Welcome them like every other refugee and immigrant has been welcomed into this country. But they need to grasp that people here don’t and won’t share their philosophy, and they need to accept that. And that there will also be people who fervently push back against theocracy and totalitarianism of any stripe.

This is what free speech is all about.

The pathetic and lazy attempt to stifle free speech with absurd titles like “Islamophobia” and the laughable attempt to curtail the necessary and healthy discussion about the problems associated with that particular religion as “racism” are more wilfully ignorant than racism could ever be.

The far left is as odious as the far right.