Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
Actor Stephen Fry is an atheist and he’s done a lot, publicly, to advance freethought. His recent interview with the CBC in Canada was a bit of disappointment when he seems to side with people like Jordan Peterson concerning politically correct speech.
Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, had a recent book tour appearance in California canceled because of past insensitive remarks about Muslims. It fanned the flames of misunderstanding about ‘free speech’ as a concept. No matter how many times it’s explained, some people refuse to understand. It also doesn’t help when a freethought group tries to make some money on that misunderstanding.
I thought it was cute to get a fundraising email from the Center for Inquiry (CFI) last week complaining about Dawkins having his free speech blocked by a California radio station. It seems that the station came across some abusive comments Dawkins has made over the years about Islam. The weird neo-con/alt-right/Christian conservative/angry atheist intersection showed how easy it’s for people, including those who should know better, to get the “free speech” concept wrong.
Milo Yiannopoulos is an Internet troll who gained ‘fame’ for being a gay Howard Stern. He has many fascist fan boys and men’s rights cry babies in a swoon because he says nasty things about minorities. He has had several appearances at colleges shut down due to protests or security fears. Milo Yiannopoulos is a no-talent clown but to tell liberals to not worry doesn’t work since another no-talent clown was put in the White House.
Yiannopoulos had the biggest stage of his short career when he was booked as a guest on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday night. Maher doesn’t like it when liberals refuse to give a platform to trolls like Yiannopoulos. Maher claims to support free speech.
Tuesday, May 20, is ‘Draw Muhammad Day’ which is used to point out the restrictions on free speech and open dialogue concerning religion that exist in many countries. Blasphemy is a victimless crime. Blasphemy laws, however, harm real people for having different ideas about religion and faith than their governments allow. Criticism should never be a crime.
Here is my contribution:
I discovered today that the local station political ad buy forms the FCC required to be put online and the broadcasters fought, are available to search. The database went online on August 2nd but didn’t have to include any information before that date. But even the short time it has been collecting information there is a lot you can learn from the information if your station is in a battleground state like Ohio. Here is a brief tutorial on how to find information if you want to find it.