Hey,

I’m surprised that you are disturbed and offended by my plea for reasonableness, open dialogue and fairness. The whole point of my reply is to argue for free speech, by pointing out that certain stock phrases such as social justice warrior have the effect of shutting down the dialogue.

I don’t see where in my post I called anyone a Nazi, racist, homophobe or sexist —but, although I don’t do so lightly, I don’t hesitate to call anyone these if their speech and/or actions demonstrate that that’s the case. Simply disagreeing with me doesn’t necessarily make you a racist, depending of course on what we’re disagreeing about. Being a racist makes you a racist.

Despite your disgust with the racism that, I agree, became more visible in response to Obama’s election, you are disapproving of the Human Rights Commission, which would be the body that someone might turn to if they had a grievance that they’d been a victim of racist speech or behavior — that they lost their job, never got the job, were the victim of harassment, turned down for housing, threatened, or were a victim of police violence or the target of police attention simply because of their race. All these things happen, all are the business of the HRC.

And by the way, there is an entire, centuries-old legal system that everyone counts on and that no one voted for. It’s called “common law.” Voting is not the ultimate measure of something’s worth; the majority can be wrong. That’s why we have constitutions and charters of rights.

It’s all well and good to be a cheap date and say you’re for free speech, summer sunshine, cute puppies and the silvery laughter of happy children. It’s a bigger challenge, and usually lonelier, to be on record for what you oppose.

My post was about just that: about the free speech that is in danger of never being heard. To hear about racism, ask a person of color; to know more about homophobia, ask a member of the LGBTQ2 community, we’ll be glad to fill you in. Don’t tell us that women are waging a “war on men” or “over-reacting.” Women, and only women, get to say what’s sexist behavior, what’s a threat and what’s unjust, because only they have experienced this; I’m a male, I don’t have standing to say what a woman should and should not put up with. I look to women to inform me.

To fight injustice and inequality we need all this information, the life stories of those who have lived with injustice as second-class citizens. Don’t let’s just sneer it off with SJW or PC. That means we’re not listening. That is what I was saying: More speech from those who’ve been discounted and marginalized and been told to shut up; more listening from — all of us, from that intersectional space where we, too, oppress others. No one’s off the hook.

For someone who’s never met me, you have a lot of confidence around what I would and wouldn’t do/approve of /say. So please note that I don’t walk around punching Nazis, or even talking about punching Nazis — I believe in non-violent methods of protest.

But you can bet I’m throwing “anti-fa” into the trash bin of language along with SJW and other loaded epithets going all the way back to “strident women’s libber,” and you can also bet that non-violent protest includes my freedom to shout down an ideologue whose hate speech is an outrage and an offense to anyone who believes in the worth and dignity of every human being.

This is not the debating class at your high school — this is life or death, there’s no obligation to allocate the time fairly, and yes, I will make that judgment call. Millions died in the Second World War in what was ultimately a fight for human rights and against Nazi ideology. Naziism and white supremacy are not important, new ideas needing protection. We’ve been there, disastrously, and we’ve done that. Please don’t tell me that we must once again honor these ideas as deserving of air time, the right to free speech of someone who wants me dead.

I’m not quite sure what to make of your telling me that the overreaching, democracy-quashing OHRC was not our original, Canadian idea, but modeled on a U.S. initiative. I’m happy to give the U.S. its due. How about: “The food here is terrible. And such small portions!”

I stand by every word of my original post, but appreciate your taking the time to give me feedback.

Regards,

David Roddis