Curbing Freedom

Over at The New Media Journal is an article by Brendan O'Neill that was originally published in The Guardian in the UK. It's called "Greens are the enemies of liberty". Of course, it isn't just environmental extremists who want to take away everyone's freedom (except their own, of course), but these days they seem to be in the forefront of trying to suppress dissent and skepticism and to tell everyone to sacrifice this, that, and the other.

It absolutely slays me that liberals/leftists/environmentalists preach tolerance, yet they are among the least tolerant people ever. Certain groups (Christians, conservatives, patriots, military, etc.) are not to be tolerated. Neither is Western civilization and culture. Economic prosperity and capitalism are also taboo. Just about anything else, though, has free rein.

All I ask is that you read Mr. O'Neill's article and give it some honest thought. Do we really want to live in an oppressive society? I think not.

Here are the first three paragraphs of said article:

Imagine a society where simply speaking out of turn or saying the "wrong thing" was openly discussed as a crime against humanity, and where sceptics or deniers of the truth were publicly labelled "criminals", hauled before the press and accused of endangering humanity with their grotesque untruths.

Imagine a society where even some liberals demanded severe restrictions on freedom of movement; where people campaigned for travelling overseas to be made prohibitively expensive in order to force people to stay at home; and where immigration was frowned upon as "toxic" and "destructive".

Imagine a society so illiberal that columnists felt no qualms about demanding government legislation to force us to change our behaviour; where the public was continually implored to feel guilty about everything from driving to shopping – and where those who refused to feel guilty were said to be suffering from a "psychological" disorder or some other species of mental illness".