Not Really...
Apr. 4th, 2014 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribThe problem with a certain subset of Professional Cranks on the Internet is that they are crankish at great length. Well, yesterday one of them decided to be crankish and brief, on two of his favorite subjects, gay marriage and climate change. His remarks are in bold, mine in regular.
If you have the right to demand that I bake you a cake, then I have the right to force you to attend church, mosque, or synagogue.
Well, besides the fact that the 1st Amendment disagrees, the argument is that if one enters into the business of baking cakes and selling them for profit, one should have to sell said cakes to anybody with the cash to purchase one. I should also point out that arguing baking cakes is somehow an "exercise in religion" probably won't fly. Even if baking is an exercise in religion, there are plenty of exercises of religion we ban. Try marrying more than one woman at a time, for example, or smoking peyote.
If you have the right to fire me because you don't like my political position on the legality of homogamy, I have the right to fire you because I don't like your political position on the legality of homosexuality.
Legally, under "at will" employment, yes you can fire for whatever reason. Here, the real case is outsiders demanding somebody be fired for their political views. Well, under law and libertarian thought, yes, I (or anybody) can "demand" of a company to fire whomever for whatever reason. The company can decide to accede to my demand or ignore me or anything in-between.
If you have the right to deny me access to the news media because I don't believe in climate change, I have the right to deny you access to the media because you don't believe in God.
Nobody has the right to access the news media. Everybody has the right to say unto the news media "cover this" or "don't cover that." As in the point above, the decision-makers at said news media have the right to accede to the request or not.
If you have the right to demand that I bake you a cake, then I have the right to force you to attend church, mosque, or synagogue.
Well, besides the fact that the 1st Amendment disagrees, the argument is that if one enters into the business of baking cakes and selling them for profit, one should have to sell said cakes to anybody with the cash to purchase one. I should also point out that arguing baking cakes is somehow an "exercise in religion" probably won't fly. Even if baking is an exercise in religion, there are plenty of exercises of religion we ban. Try marrying more than one woman at a time, for example, or smoking peyote.
If you have the right to fire me because you don't like my political position on the legality of homogamy, I have the right to fire you because I don't like your political position on the legality of homosexuality.
Legally, under "at will" employment, yes you can fire for whatever reason. Here, the real case is outsiders demanding somebody be fired for their political views. Well, under law and libertarian thought, yes, I (or anybody) can "demand" of a company to fire whomever for whatever reason. The company can decide to accede to my demand or ignore me or anything in-between.
If you have the right to deny me access to the news media because I don't believe in climate change, I have the right to deny you access to the media because you don't believe in God.
Nobody has the right to access the news media. Everybody has the right to say unto the news media "cover this" or "don't cover that." As in the point above, the decision-makers at said news media have the right to accede to the request or not.
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no subject
Date: 2014-04-04 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-04 03:35 pm (UTC)And yes, bollocks the lot of it. There are parallels with my issues with the complaints locally about a proposed increase in the minimum wage with a lot of, probably quite liberal, this being Seattle, restaurant owners, failing to grasp that it doesn't matter how well they treat their staff, it isn't about them.
no subject
Date: 2014-04-04 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-04 04:53 pm (UTC)