Dale Rawlings on Charlie Hebdo and freedom of speech

A guest post by cartoonist Dale Rawlings.

I've been seeing some serious hand wringing from people over the Charlie Hebdo story decrying the content of the cartoons. Usually it goes along the lines of "No one deserves to die over cartoons but they're borderline racist" or "They're just so damned offensive" or "It's not even good satire. They're so juvenile and have no sophistication" etc... The trouble with supporting freedom of speech is that to TRULY be a supporter of freedom of expression is to stand in solidarity of those expressions that aren't so nice and easy to defend. It's really easy to stand in support of that speech you agree with -but far harder to defend something you don't personally like, disagree with, or just find to be ugly. But this is what it means to be an advocate of freedom of speech. Do you honestly think the ACLU liked what the Klan stands for or has to say when they defended their rights to free speech? THIS is the price we pay for freedom of speech.

When those rights of expression come under threat of violence then standing up in solidarity for that freedom of expression becomes not only essential, but mandatory. If you waver those extremists will take that as a sign of weakness and embolden them to take similar measures to squelch speech that offends them.

I have even seen some people laughably suggest in this debate that criticizing religion or religious figures should be exempt from protection so as not to offend someone's religious beliefs where anything similar happens in the future. Think about that for a minute. That would protect the Westboro Baptist Church, Al Sharpton, and the Church of Scientology from being ridiculed and satirized and that is a losing scenario for everyone. If your beliefs can't stand up to ridicule and you feel they need special protection from that ridicule, then maybe your faith in your belief system just isn't as strong as you think.

Je suis Charlie

Discuss.