Why are there so many statists and communists here on this list now?

[Tim May]

On Saturday, May 3, 2003, at 09:00  PM, Andy Lopata wrote:
> Of course the Dixie Chicks controversy does not implicate 
> Constitutional
> freedom of speech.  The government is not restricting the DC's speech 
> (i.e.
> not throwing them in jail or censoring them).
>
> However, the ever consolidating corporate media (in conjunction with 
> the
> powers that be in Washington) very effectively limits and contains the 
> scope
> of debate about national and international issues.  See Manufacturing
> Consent (Chomsky/Herman)
> http://www.commoncouragepress.com/chomsky_consent.html.  The DCs got 
> in hot
> water because they dared to step outside the narrow range of 
> permissible
> debate in the mainstream infotainment industry.  Sure there was plenty 
> of
> debate about the war, but the media treats different views in very 
> different
> ways.  The DCs are held out as opponents of the war to show who stupid
> opposing the war was - they are just country singers - what the hell 
> do they
> know about global politics.  And the infotainment industry (news 
> included)
> ignores the multitude of articulate, intelligent speakers who could
> forcefully explain the numerous reasons the war was immoral, unjust, 
> and not
> in the interest of the U.S.  The treatment is subtle, but very 
> effective.
>
> Why is this restriction on speech and debate any less insidious than 
> statist
> control?  Why is capitalist self-censorship better than 
> state-controlled
> explicit censorship?

The Dixie Chicks catered to the right wing, country music, monster 
truck rally crowd. Not surprising that when they insulted their crowd's 
leader, the crowd reacted.

Being against the war hasn't hurt Michael Moore's popularity in _his_ 
crowd.

It's silly to say that "freedom of speech" implies that people should 
continue to find popular those who have insulted their views or their 
leaders.

--Tim May
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a 
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also 
into you." -- Nietzsche