Post Tagged 'free speech'

December 07, 2021

Imprisoned human rights activist Jimmy Lai receives Golden Pen of Freedom award

Hong Kong media mogul and fierce human rights advocate Jimmy Lai and the staff of the now-liquidated pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily were awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom, the World Association of News Publishers’ annual press freedom award. Continue Reading...

July 16, 2021

Hong Kong public librarian suspended by Chinese Communist Party for promoting works by Jimmy Lai

What does absolute control look like in Communist China? It looks like an unnamed Hong Kong librarian at the Shek Tong Tsui Public Library being suspended from her job after placing 10 of Jimmy Lai’s works on the “Librarian’s Choice” shelf in late June. Continue Reading...

September 07, 2020

Jimmy Lai innocent, Pope Francis silent on Hong Kong

A court has found Hong Kong dissident Jimmy Lai not guilty of intimidation. But that does not mean he, or Hong Kong, can rest easy – especially as he faces the prospect of life in prison without any public support from the most important institution in his life: the Vatican. Continue Reading...

November 27, 2019

Do classical liberals ‘pave the way for white nationalists’?

Matthew Schmitz’s article “How classical liberals paved the way for white nationalists” in the Catholic Herald borrows a conceit from Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Both place two unrelated phenomena in their titles for dramatic effect. Continue Reading...

October 16, 2019

Corporate America’s bet on China

In Dan Hugger’s most recent post about the controversy surrounding the NBA’s visit to China, he identifies the crux of the issue: “If even the mildest form of expression of solidarity can provoke the People’s Republic of China to such draconian action as to imperil the well-being of NBA players, why play in China at all?” Continue Reading...

April 05, 2019

Chick-fil-A barred from airport

Sean Ryan, a Buffalo, New York Assemblyman, wants to control what you eat. Last week, the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport nixed plans to open a Chick-fil-A after Assemblyman Ryan took to Twitter to call out the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) for allowing this “discriminatory” corporation to open inside the “taxpayer-funded public facility.” Continue Reading...

February 12, 2019

Camille Paglia: The fearless feminist

True thinkers are those capable of provoking in their readers and listeners the ability to think outside of ordinary life, to look beyond the merely conventional, and to understand that tensions, contradictions, and nuances are part of the process of growing. Continue Reading...

August 24, 2017

When online conformity mobs imitate government coercion

The social-media outrage machine is rather predictable these days. It doesn’t take much for companies and celebrities to offend the cultural consensus, spurring online mobs to respond, in turn: not through peaceful discourse or by turning their attention elsewhere, but by fomenting rage, abuse, and assault on the subject(s) in question. Continue Reading...

May 12, 2015

American higher education: Where free speech goes to die

You’ve heard of that mythical place where elephants go to die? Apparently, these giants “know” they are going to die, and they head off to a place known only to them. Continue Reading...

January 13, 2014

Why Rhetoric is Necessary for a Free Society

Why is free speech necessary for a free society? As Deirdre McCloskey, an economist, historian, and rhetorician, explains, persuasion is the only alternative to violence. A free society is a speaking, rather than violent, society. Continue Reading...

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