Natural rights, anti-discrimination laws, hate speech laws, and foolishness

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Website owner:  James Miller

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Right 1. That which is right; moral rightness; also, justice. 2. Often plural. A just and proper claim or title to anything, or that which may be claimed on just, moral, legal or customary grounds.

Natural rights. Rights with which mankind is supposedly endowed by nature.

Funk & Wagnalls Dictionery

One can contend that all people have certain natural rights. For example it would be natural to feel that everyone has a natural right to choose his own friends, to associate with whomever he wants and not associate with whomever he doesn’t want; to do business with whomever he wants and not do business with whomever he doesn’t want. In other words, he has a natural right to discriminate as he pleases in regard to his dealings with other people.

Let us consider the idea of natural rights. Does a murderer have any natural right not to be discriminated against? No. Does a thief have any natural right not to be discriminated against? No. Does a sex pervert have any natural right not to be discriminated against? No. Does anyone have any natural right not to be discriminated against? No. Is it possible then for a thief to have a right not to be discriminated against? Yes, it is very easy to give a thief the right not to be discriminated against. It can be accomplished very simply by the government passing a law stating that thieves cannot be discriminated against. If such a law were passed any thief could take anyone to court that he felt had discriminated against him. Perhaps they wouldn’t hire him for a job or rent a room to him. If a judge or jury could be convinced that discrimination had occurred, the guilty person could be assessed some large sum of money or put in prison. Thus such a law would have the effect of making the entire population of a country afraid to discriminate against thieves. Would such a law be morally right? No, it would be morally wrong. It would violate their natural right to discriminate against whomever they pleased. But it would have the effect of intimidating the entire population of the country.

Now let us consider another type of law that has become common in western countries. Hate speech laws. It would be natural to feel that everyone has a natural right to speak their mind on various topics, to say what they feel, to say what they believe. Indeed many western countries make a big thing out of their people having freedom of speech. To me, personally, freedom of speech is very, very important. I would rather live in a hut and eat lentils and be able to say what I think, than to live in a palace and dine sumptuously and not have that right. What now is the effect of hate speech laws? Let us first note that a law against hate speech is different from a law against, say, stealing. What constitutes theft is pretty clear. If someone takes something that doesn’t belong to him, it is clear that he has stolen it. But what constitutes hate speech? Here things become very nebulous and a matter of opinion. There is a wide latitude in what strongly opinionated judges or juries might view as hate speech. For example, it is not at all difficult to imagine a preacher preaching against homosexuality being charged with hate speech. (In fact, could it be that the main reason for liberal support of hate speech laws is to silence opposition to that great sin of homosexuality?) At any rate, the effect of hate speech laws is to intimidate and silence a population on many topics — where some people are more easily cowed and silenced than others. It is all part of political correctness. It causes many people to be afraid to speak the truth that they see on many topics. And with good reason. Many people, if they speak up, if they stand up for the truth, lose their jobs or suffer some heavy consequence.

Suppose now that you have a political party in power in a country that is given to making lots of these kinds of laws. They make laws stating that you cannot discriminate against Jews, you cannot discriminate against Blacks, you cannot discriminate against women, you cannot discriminate against sex perverts, etc. They make laws against hate speech. What kind of climate would that create in a country? What would that do to personal liberty? If such laws override the freedoms that you are stated to have by your constitution, is your supposed freedom real or is it just pretend freedom? What kind of country would you really be living in?

What kind of people would favor the above kinds of laws? One group of people that would just love them would be lawyers. Such laws would be really great for lawyers. What other kinds of people would like them? Well, what I have described is exactly the kind of situation we have here in this country. What kind of people in this country favor these kinds of laws? The Leftists. The Socialists. The Liberals. The sort of people who know for sure they have all the answers and want to force their ideas, values and outlooks on everyone. The kind of people who don’t want to allow others to have their own minds and opinions. People who don’t want others to be free. People with minds similar to the minds of the radical Islamists: “We alone have the Truth. Do things our way or die!” The liberals look about the world and see oppression everywhere. Jews are oppressed. Blacks are oppressed. Women are oppressed. Sex perverts are oppressed. They see wrong everywhere and they have the solution: Laws, make such conduct illegal! Anti-discrimination laws. Hate speech laws. That is the answer! They are knights on white horses righting the wrongs of the world. There is too much inequity in the world! The answer is clear: Communism! Equal pay for everyone! How can anyone not see it!

We live in a world of great technological wonders. Computers, the internet, cell phones. Great advances in medicine. Technologically things are looking very good. But with all that, the future of the western world does not look good to me. It looks very dark and scary. I see an ugly future of personal oppression, lack of freedom, serfdom. I see powerful totalitarian states headed by leftists forcing their will on the world. The western world has abandoned God, it has abandoned Christianity, it has abandoned morality. Satan is winning in the West. Liberalism is winning and liberalism is evil.

Feb 2017