About the Author
ConservaTibbs
Opinion Archives
E-mail Scott
Scott's Links


Authoritarian Leftists and censorship of abortion opponents

By Scott Tibbs, May 6, 2013

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. -- John 3:19-20

It is interesting how often Leftists try to silence dissent, demonstrating their authoritarian streak and the lack of confidence they have in the validity of their own positions. In the comments for my letter to the editor (which had nothing to do with abortion) last month, the following three comments were posted:

The First Amendment is a one-way promise from the Federal Government to the People and the Press. It imposes no requirement on the Press. It should not be misinterpreted by any Editor as requiring an equal voice to every jackass in the community.

Who is the HT responsible to? Its readership?

The question before the Editor is this: is it reasonable for the HT to continue to provide a podium for Tibbs to continue to attack the women’s clinic in our community? When is enough, enough?
I think it should be HT policy, forthwith, that in light of the alleged violent attack on the women's clinic in our community, the HT and the HTO will no longer facilitate any type of attack, dialog, or whatever, on Planned Parenthood, or settled law, regarding the right of women to seek legally protected medical services. Enough is enough.
I think what the HT has to decide is whether or not they feel they are being used by this individual and his "church" to incite violence against women and homosexuals, or if it is merely a speech issue. Given the amount of times this individual spews his hatred on these pages and links back to his own extremist, hate filled blog, I fear that the HT is just being used as a vehicle to incite the kind of violence we saw perpetrated against PP.

Again, it is interesting to note that my letter to the editor had nothing to do with abortion. I used the 20th anniversary of the massacre of the Branch Davidian cultists in Waco to warn against the use of force by government - not only with the use of military force (including tanks) against the Branch Davidians but also paramilitary tactics by local law enforcement. The overuse and abuse of SWAT teams has terrorized many and resulted in unnecessary deaths for both law enforcement and (much more often) innocent civilians - including children.

So, in the comments for a letter that had nothing to do with abortion or Planned Parenthood, why are local Leftists publicly lobbying the Herald-Times to ban me from commenting on HeraldTimesOnline.com and stop publishing my letters to the editor in the print edition?

What is evident here is, once again, the totalitarian wing of the Left cannot abide any dissent. (Though to be fair, other Leftists disagreed with the above calls for censorship.) They clearly do not have confidence in the validity of their own arguments, or they would not be openly advocating for censorship of arguments they dislike. It is typical behavior of the authoritarian Left, as we have seen with illegal "speech codes" on college campuses for decades now. Speech the authoritarian Left dislikes must not only be countered, it must be silenced.

The whining about "violence" against Planned Parenthood (or abortion providers generally) is a fraudulent smokescreen. No one at my church is inciting violence against anyone, and I have been very clear for many years that violence in the name of stopping abortion is not acceptable. If the authoritarian Left was serious about rhetoric "inciting" violence, they would silence their own advocacy of abortion rights and criticism of abortion opponents. After all, the violence against actual people at Planned Parenthood has been perpetrated by pro-abortion terrorists.

The reality is actually very simple. Advocates of "abortion rights" know they are advocating for the "right" to commit a terrible evil. Their consciences are tormented by this, so they want to silence any speech that exposes this evil.