Letter: Beware of slippery slopes | Opinions and Editorials – Aiken Standard

Columnist Jack DeVine both warns of and greases a slippery slope in his column Can we talk?

His warning is that the current climate of students using force to keep unpopular people from speaking on campus and public pressure causing speakers to be fired or have to recant unpopular statements is undermining the U.S. Constitution's protection of free speech.

(It must be noted that government inaction failing to protect the property rights of those who host speakers is not merely a slippery slope but a direct failure to uphold the Constitutions purpose of protecting individual rights.)

Mr. DeVine greases the slope that ends free speech by writing that we should not allow government, private corporations, or popular culture to hamper unfiltered communication. Hes not worried that our government is interfering with free speech although many other governments do with their laws against blasphemy and hate speech. And because his column disparages 1984"-ish controls, he cant be serious about preventing popular culture from filtering communication.

This leaves private corporations as the target of his desire to ensure unfiltered communication. In particular, he is opposed to Twitter filtering Trumps communication." But Twitters fact-checking Trump does not interfere with Trumps free speech because he can still tweet lies there. Im glad Mr. DeVine recognizes that people are free not to deal with private corporations, and that he stops short of calling for legal force to remove their freedom to filter communication.

Unfortunately, many other conservatives slide to the bottom and call for anti-trust action to stifle the speech of large media organizations. This reveals the conservatives belief in freedom to be less than skin-deep.

Robert Stubblefield

Aiken

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Letter: Beware of slippery slopes | Opinions and Editorials - Aiken Standard