Friday, Jul 25, 2008
Don't sanitize America by censoring "South Park"; "Nancy Quan" glamorizes prostitution; breast is best for most (but not all) new moms.
Jul 26, 1999 | Why Gore would censor "South Park"
BY DAVID HOROWITZ
(07/19/99)
"Moral" conservatives and "concerned" liberals love to invoke the name of "the children" whenever they want to disguise the fact that they're trying to sanitize America. They especially love to, in their rhetoric, combine their favorite victim with the ultimate villain. Everyone can hate TV!
Folks, if you hate TV, don't buy one. You are free to do that.
As a liberal, it makes me a bit afraid to mention such a candidate, but a fiscally conservative civil libertarian would wipe out the competition. A "hands off my personal life and wallet" message would resonate with those tired of Tipper and her silly, paranoid mentality about children; with those tired of people in government telling us what we can say on the Internet or do with our bodies; and with people whose lives, or whose friends' lives have been destroyed by the misguided "drug war." All in the name of our children.
What will we leave "our children" if we don't act soon? A country where the media is censored, drug users are locked away for life, violent children get the death penalty, and where we drop bombs on countries with more freedom than ours. That's not America. That's not even Singapore.
-- David Isbister
Freedom of expression has long been a bipartisan cause and whipping boy simultaneously. Liberals and conservatives alike have fought for it, and liberals and conservatives alike have done what they could to undermine it over history. If Clinton and Gore like the V-chip too much, well, how's that different from the elder George Bush campaigning against the American Civil Liberties Union in 1988? The ACLU is far more consistent in supporting freedom of expression than anybody who walks around with a party label on his or her lapel.
Horowitz keeps trying to pretend that the Christian Coalition and its anti-free expression agenda is not a large and important constituency to the Republican party. They aren't "caving" to the V-chip, they're embracing it as naturally as their lungs embrace oxygen. Some Republicans still remember what conservatism actually means; unfortunately, they're rapidly following Barry Goldwater to the happy hunting grounds.
And I'm getting tired of people who defend the gun and tobacco lobbies on "free expression" grounds. When you stretch the metaphor that far, you end up making it available to the Ted Bundys of the world too.
-- Francis Volpe
Carlisle, Pa.
Little did I expect to see an anti-censorship stance taken by this conservative author. A daring stance indeed, considering conservatism's track record on censorship. I applaud him for having the guts to take a stand for what he believes in and not conforming to the narrow mind-set of the typical conservative.
-- Victor Allen
Mobile, Ala.
While I don't find "South Park" humorous, the Gore/Clinton thrust toward censorship is revealing -- and it's scary. Once again, the theme that "government can solve all our problems" raises is ugly head.
I think people first see all the marketed toys, T-shirts, lunch pails and other junk, and assume that these moon-faced kids are simply "cute," without watching the show to realize that they truly are foul-mouthed, bigoted creatures. Parents should look to themselves, and not the government, for responsibility about what their children watch. The "soccer moms" should actually watch a couple of shows and understand that the foul-mouthed little cartoon characters are no more suitable for little children than Fritz the Cat (the R-rated animated cartoon) or "Beavis and Butthead."
-- Gary A. Smith
New Milford, Conn.
Get Salon in your mailbox!