Apologies for not having posted in such a long time. I will try to start posting again when possible. From a FB post yesterday. Students from the Center for Jewish Life in Princeton refused to host Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely because of her support for the occupation, and her racism that inflames hatred and stands in opposition to Jewish values. They said: "We in no way support Hotovely’s racist statements. We refuse to let Hotovely use us to legitimize her goals." She replied: “The reality in which different opinions are censored is a vital blow to the freedom of thought” Tzipi Hotovely, Princeton University, 2017 My comments: I fully support a person’s right to hold whatever ideals and views they choose to hold, to believe in what gods or goddesses they choose to believe in, to follow whatever religion they choose to follow and to hold whatever traditions and customs they hold. But while I support completely their freedom to think what they want, I DO NOT support and will deny that they have any right to force their thoughts, beliefs or traditions on others. They can talk, I have every right to not listen and to walk away. But by banning them from talking you walk into the same response to those you don't like that are the hallmark of totalitarian regimes and here it has given moral high ground to stand on. In this case I would have gone ahead with her attending and met her with a carefully researched debating team, evidence to hand, then filmed the entire thing and made it public as a clear argument against her views and the views she supports. There is a fine line between fighting intolerance and actually becoming intolerant yourself. You defeat ignorance with education and knowledge, you defeat tyranny with freedom and you destroy support for cruelty and oppression by making people aware of the truth and making those who perpetuate the cruelty unsupportable. Here she is able to claim that her views and freedoms are being oppressed and that the students are facists opposed to freedom of thought, it would be better to have challenged her views with truth, evidence and well-argued debate and made her look foolish and more importantly wrong. Publicly embarrass the heck out of both her and her case, make her too embarrassing for people to deal with, cut financial and political support for her by destroying the credibility of her case and by making it unarguably clear that anyone supporting her is an arsehole. The only way to fight tyranny WITH tyranny involves firing squads and walls. Instead use the freedoms we have to break apart the tyranny and let more freedom in. She wants to talk, to debate, let her, then crush her with the truth, do it publicly, loudly and without hesitation. Don't ban her, make her afraid of ever coming back because of how she was shown up the last time. |
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