Freedom of Speech and Pat Robertson

Everyone knows about what Pat Robertson said about the people of Haiti and the reason he thinks they're suffering after this horrible earthquake over the past couple of days (and for the foreseeable future). If you don't, here's a clip (Facebook users please click "See original post" below to view this):

I'm not going to comment on his remarks, other than to say that it's ridiculous to think that an entire country got together and did something like this. My past posts probably give you a pretty good idea about how I feel about the content of his statements.

What I'm going to comment on is the group of people who believe that anyone who criticizes him is against the freedom of speech that we enjoy in this country. According to many of these people, no one should be allowed to take any action against him due to his comments.

That, my friends, is what goes against the freedom of speech.

Everyone in this country absolutely has the freedom to say and believe whatever they want. They also have the responsibility to accept that they'll be judged based on what they say.

I frequently make inflammatory comments and I accept that not everyone's going to agree with me, and that people will judge me based on those comments. I said on Facebook a while back that I think that people need to realize that Fox News's reporting is based on lies and half-truths, and a fairly good friend of my family stopped following me because she doesn't agree with me. I'm sorry she did that but it's not going to stop saying what I believe.

I also know not everyone agrees with me that we need to stop using cars as much as a form of transportation, and that people are going to judge me based on that. But I'm not going to stop saying it, and I accept that some people are going to call me names and judge me based on their feelings about those statements.

Pat Robertson knows that his comments are going to upset a lot of people. And as a public figure who touches a lot of lives via his presence on television, he knows that he's going to be judged by what he says. It's pretty obvious that he has total conviction about what he's saying and accepts that he's getting judged on what he says about such things.

But those who say that we're not allowed to criticize a person because of his beliefs? That's the height of lunacy and the absolute antithesis of the point of the freedom of speech. The point of the freedom of speech is to ensure that everyone is heard and all ideas get presented. And then those ideas are subject to rational discourse. But a person also needs to realize that what you say is going to have repercussions.

Sure, Robertson has the right to say what he did. But he also has the responsibility to accept the after-effects of this comments.