Edmonton Sun | 18Jun2009 | Orest Slepokura
Letters
http://www.edmontonsun.com/comment/letters/2009/06/18/9834841-sun.html
Thought Police
Re: "Thank the Thought Police for this idea," Mindelle Jacobs, Edmonton
Sun, June17, 2009.
One of the perverse side-effects of trying to silence and punish
offensive speech is the free publicity and the platform it gives the
accused. Some end up as household names, their accusers serving as
their de facto publicists. Over time, as these cases drag on, the
accused may often more credibly spin the narrative with themselves as
martyrs to the cause of free speech. And again, the rest of us, who in
fact fund these largely futile exercises, are left wondering whether
all the time and expense, and also the reopening of old wounds, has led
to any enlargement of our moral resources.
Orest Slepokura
(You're right it's
typically about private agendas.)