Morrissey’s Defense Of Free Speech Underlines What Both Right And Left Get Wrong - The Federalist

Morrissey’s Defense Of Free Speech Underlines What Both Right And Left Get Wrong - The Federalist

Morrissey has penned an eloquent attack on those who oppose free speech, but it has lessons for the defenders, too.

Excerpt:

"Former Smiths front man and international superstar solo artist Morrissey has found himself in progressives’ crosshairs again. This time, the controversial crooner has hit back in a new form. After being savaged as a racist xenophobe by the United Kingdom newspaper The Independent in what was supposed to be a concert review, Morrissey launched a new website with a brutal screed attacking both the outlet and British society in general.

This is not the first time Morrissey has been attacked by the politically correct brigade. Last year he came under fire for suggesting that acts of Islamic terror are often committed by Muslims and that the U.K. government has been far too lax in confronting the problem. This year the issue seems to be that he has said nice things about Brexit and had the temerity to waive a Union Jack flag that a fan brought to his concert in London."

The Federalist.com - by David Marcus.

A long examination of the topic.
Regards,
FWD.

---

Related item:

• New Morrissey website 'Morrissey Central', including lengthy statement re The Independent - Mar. 31, 2018

 

[Anonymous]

With Donald Trump in the White House and Brexit less than a year away I’m not sure your views of Anerica’s alleged lack of culture or Britain’s apparently dying culture are true, you know. It seems to me there’s still life in both the old dog and the boisterous puppy.

That might be in part why families are prepared to cross deserts to reach the USA and young men are happy to hang from the axles of articulated lorries to escape the EU and get to Britain.

Being written off by your enemies is always a good sign things are going in the right direction.

No, most are just looking for jobs in developed countries that have some modicum of political stability that many conservatives are attempting to disrupt for the pettiest of reasons. They're not interested in your self-flagellating idealism, and self-defeating nationalism. Many of them are fleeing their own countries because of those things.

None of what you mentioned is going to stop changing demographics, and none of it is influencing the next generation.

The future is always about the youth, not about grandma and grandpa's cultural resentment. Everybody dies.

Finally, being written off by your enemies can simply be a sign that they know how this ends. Keep thinking you won something from Brexit in whatever from it ends up taking. People thought the dramatic changes brought on in the sixties were just a temporary thing as well. They were wrong. Progress zig-zags. It doesn't always follow a straight line, but it always gets to where it wants to go.

Stay in denial. Shake that death rattle.

 

[Anonymous]

Where exactly has Morrissey 'complained' about free speech? the Independent used their right to free speech to publish a fairly critical article on him and Morrissey is utilizing his right to free speech to offer a robust rebuttal. That's how things work I would've thought. I suspect like the NME Morrissey will get the last laugh as newspapers gasp and wheeze towards extinction.

Where have you been?

From his recent webpage rant:

"This is symptomatic of a modern, shredded British society, where free speech no longer exists."

I mean, how can you take any human being seriously who thinks like that? He doesn't even believe that.

Not only that, but him labeling people fascists, and liars when they have an opinion are also direct attacks on his own definition of free speech.

The question is, why is Morrissey so antagonistic toward other people's free speech? Does he have fascist tendencies? He's always trying to attack anyone who criticizes him, or thinks differently than him on certain topics.

 

[URBANUS]

Where have you been?

From his recent webpage rant:

"This is symptomatic of a modern, shredded British society, where free speech no longer exists."

I mean, how can you take any human being seriously who thinks like that? He doesn't even believe that.

Not only that, but him labeling people fascists, and liars when they have an opinion are also direct attacks on his own definition of free speech.

The question is, why is Morrissey so antagonistic toward other people's free speech? Does he have fascist tendencies? He's always trying to attack anyone who criticizes him, or thinks differently than him on certain topics.

When I read this I thought to myself there is absolutely no limit for some when it comes to stupidity and then I was wondering to myself which planet you come from.

I bet you work for the local council, the easiest way to never do a thing of any worth to anyone or anything. In a privatised world people like you would die.

 

[Anonymous]

Where exactly has Morrissey 'complained' about free speech? the Independent used their right to free speech to publish a fairly critical article on him and Morrissey is utilizing his right to free speech to offer a robust rebuttal. That's how things work I would've thought. I suspect like the NME Morrissey will get the last laugh as newspapers gasp and wheeze towards extinction.

Last laugh? Morrissey will be dead long before newspapers stop being printed, and by then, it will all have migrated to the Internet anyway.

The Independent is an Internet publication. It's no longer printed, but Morrissey apparently thinks it is. Is there anything he gets right about any subject? In retrospect, it's funny that Morrissey ever perpetrated the idea that he was bookish, and people bought it. He's clearly not a reader.

Morrissey will get the last laugh after people tiring of laughing at him.

 

[URBANUS]

Last laugh? Morrissey will be dead long before newspapers stop being printed, and by then, it will all have migrated to the Internet anyway.

The Independent is an Internet publication. It's no longer printed, but Morrissey apparently thinks it is. Is there anything he gets right about any subject? In retrospect, it's funny that Morrissey ever perpetrated the idea that he was bookish, and people bought it. He's clearly not a reader.

Morrissey will get the last laugh after people tiring of laughing at him.

He posed with books but maybe he reads books not published by heebs that deal with real things and not a fake event during world war 2.

There are non marxists books out there and I believe he reads those. Even a paper online is in fact in print and many are the people that print things out from online publications.

"Oh, I never thought about that I was busy being a leyboard warrior on the antifa website from the safety of my american uni room where the world is much easier to control"

 

[Anonymous]

I don't like the fact that this article seems to asume Morrissey is a conservative when he despises both extremes: retrograde conservatives and disoriented liberals.

On the other hand, Morrissey didn't meddle with The Independent's freedom of speech, he respected it. He just said its article was full of lies. He stated it was a lying pamphlet and he said his truth: firstly that wasn't an actual review because they didn't assist to the concert and second, nobody left the place because of his words about Nicola S. Those are two very different things: freedom of speech and media (not a particular person) lying with animus injuriandi.

Speaking about nations, I want to remind everybody here that as harmful as nationalisms are able to be, and in fact they were so, most people only have their nations to protect and shelter them, for good or for bad. If you are one of those lucky ones whose life is not limited by boundaries between countries, territories, nationalities, Trump's wall, etc., I want to remember you that most people actually are. That's why poor people are more attached to their flags. So, don't be snobs.

Then people most concerned with immigrants, and nationalism are the people who don't live around them.

You don't need nationalism for people to defend their homelands, and you don't need empty immigrant bashing, and fake promises of doing something about it to have borders.

You accept that you need immigration, and that telling kids that were brought to America as children, and raised in this culture that they should be deported.

Immigrants are not the problem, legal, or otherwise.

It's playing to people's worst primitive instincts, and using it to deflect from the other inequalities that have a greater effect on their lives. It's age-old, and it tends to effect the most paranoid, and fearful types of personalities. They did the same thing to minorities after the economic meltdown of 2008. They blamed them for crashing the global markets because of mortgage defaults when that was absolutely impossible.

Anti-immigrant crusaders are not calling for a middle ground. They're demanding extremes.

The mealy mouthed ones like Morrissey can't even say exactly what they want accomplished because they know how ugly it will sound. A brave person would say exactly what they mean, and not play these pity games about responses to their opinions on the topic.

For all Morrissey's talk about speaking the truth, for some reason he has trouble saying exactly how he feels.

Progress has always had to face the ignorant masses who threaten to blow everything up unless you stop changing things. It's not going to happen. Get used to it.

 

[bhops]

He posed with books but maybe he reads books not published by heebs that deal with real things and not a fake event during world war 2.

There are non marxists books out there and I believe he reads those. Even a paper online is in fact in print and many are the people that print things out from online publications.

"Oh, I never thought about that I was busy being a leyboard warrior on the antifa website from the safety of my american uni room where the world is much easier to control"

I think you and I at least understand the premise that the 4th estate is on its very last legs.

 

[Anonymous]

He posed with books but maybe he reads books not published by heebs that deal with real things and not a fake event during world war 2.

There are non marxists books out there and I believe he reads those. Even a paper online is in fact in print and many are the people that print things out from online publications.

"Oh, I never thought about that I was busy being a leyboard warrior on the antifa website from the safety of my american uni room where the world is much easier to control"

What "Charles Dickens stuff" as he once stammered? Boy George's autobiography? The Daily Mail?

He even once stated that he just skims books, and then tosses them in the trash. I guess you have to read somewhat if you're going to plagiarize other people's work and use them for your lyrics, but as an intellectual pursuit, covering a wide range of topics? I doubt it.

It seems that the dip in the quality of Morrissey's lyrics coincided with him plagiarizing less.

He seemed confident that he could do it alone right around the time that we got this:

"Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Dagenham, Dagenham
Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Dagenham, Dagenham Dave
Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Oh, Dave, oh, Dagenham, dagenham
Dagenham Dave
Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Oh, Dave, oh, Dave, oh, Dave
Oh, Dave"

 

[URBANUS]

I think you and I at least understand the premise that the 4th estate is on its very last legs.

But living in denial which is in itself a comedy making us laugh.

 

[URBANUS]

What "Charles Dickens stuff" as he once stammered? Boy George's autobiography? The Daily Mail?

He even once stated that he just skims books, and then tosses them in the trash. I guess you have to read somewhat if you're going to plagiarize other people's work and use them for your lyrics, but as an intellectual pursuit, covering a wide range of topics? I doubt it.

It seems that the dip in the quality of Morrissey's lyrics coincided with him plagiarizing less.

He seemed confident that he could do it alone right around the time that we got this:

"Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Dagenham, Dagenham
Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Dagenham, Dagenham Dave
Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Oh, Dave, oh, Dagenham, dagenham
Dagenham Dave
Dagenham Dave, Dagenham Dave
Oh, Dave, oh, Dave, oh, Dave
Oh, Dave"

He just proves what I always knew, that book readers live with this notion they know more about the world and everything else. Most people are posers and an empty barrel always creates the most noise.

 

[Anonymous]

I think you and I at least understand the premise that the 4th estate is on its very last legs.

People follow what is mainstream. They've been predicting the death of mainstream media for years, and they still dominate the ratings year after year.

It's like those who predicted the death of television when it's only sharing the market with new forms of media, and is still the preferred source of entertainment. Or talking about the death of a certain sport when, again, it's merely sharing the viewer's attention spans with other forms of entertainment.

People like the mainstream formats because it allows them to share the same stories, and to stay socially connected. The desire for media balkanization tends to come from fringe types who don't want any rules, or standards because they can't compete under those rules or standards.

You're forgetting that most people don't have the will, nor the interest to validate facts on their own, so they will always return to a communal source, no matter how much they claim to not trust it.

The success of alternative forms of media require followers with unhealthy levels of anonymity towards the mainstream. For that reason, they will likely never be attractive to most.

"Alternative" to most people means "kooky."

 

[Anonymous]

He just proves what I always knew, that book readers live with this notion they know more about the world and everything else. Most people are posers and an empty barrel always creates the most noise.

READ THIS

 

[Anonymous]

Last laugh? Morrissey will be dead long before newspapers stop being printed, and by then, it will all have migrated to the Internet anyway.

The Independent is an Internet publication. It's no longer printed, but Morrissey apparently thinks it is. Is there anything he gets right about any subject? In retrospect, it's funny that Morrissey ever perpetrated the idea that he was bookish, and people bought it. He's clearly not a reader.

Morrissey will get the last laugh after people tiring of laughing at him.

This is very true. I think you have said some very good things on here. I think Morrissey found the intelligent crowd to0 challenging "You're older now and you're a clever swine" . Like Trump he saw the thick are easy money and played to that crowd.
Morrissey stands for nothing . it wasn't always like that but post 2005, maybe even post 2000 its as true as true can be.
The people on here who say "Don't read his comments then" are just little sheep , unaware Morrissey is now not just a con job , he always was a bit, but a nasty piece of shit who is empty as can be. Do people really think he cares about Mexicans? what a laugh . Its money baby .
It used to be true that the bad press would be forgotten and the music would live on, thats not true anymore he has completely ruined his own legacy , f***ed it beyond all hope. The only way to deal with it is to say "yes i like morrissey, well I like the 80s and 90s morrissey . The other one is a c***"

 

[Anonymous]

He just proves what I always knew, that book readers live with this notion they know more about the world and everything else. Most people are posers and an empty barrel always creates the most noise.

Because, depending on the subject, they often do. You don't learn about the world from existing in your own bubble, and not having your ideas challenged. Knowledge isn't received through osmosis. You can't say screw books, screw the news, and expect to be a part of the discussion. You will have little to say, and you won't be able to effectively defend yourself.

Your type of thinking sounds more like an inferior complex born out of laziness, and the realization that you are competing with a handicap. You don't have the knowledgeable, and without that, you tend to have less influence over the discussion.

Many people want their ideas to be accepted without doing the hard work.

It's not how it works.

 

[Anonymous]

He just proves what I always knew, that book readers live with this notion they know more about the world and everything else. Most people are posers and an empty barrel always creates the most noise.

yes moz is very loud and his body is that of a barrel in shape. what fake event in ww2?

 

[bhops]

People follow what is mainstream. They've been predicting the death of mainstream media for years, and they still dominate the ratings year after year.

It's like those who predicted the death of television when it's only sharing the market with new forms of media, and is still the preferred source of entertainment. Or talking about the death of a certain sport when, again, it's merely sharing the viewer's attention spans with other forms of entertainment.

People like the mainstream formats because it allows them to share the same stories, and to stay socially connected. The desire for media balkanization tends to come from fringe types who don't want any rules, or standards because they can't compete under those rules or standards.

You're forgetting that most people don't have the will, nor the interest to validate facts on their own, so they will always return to a communal source, no matter how much they claim to not trust it.

The success of alternative forms of media require followers with unhealthy levels of anonymity towards the mainstream. For that reason, they will likely never be attractive to most.

"Alternative" to most people means "kooky."

Really?? You could either look at Infowars on the right or The Young Turks on the left and both formats are kicking the shit ratings-wise over many traditional forms of MSM.

 

[Truth]

You're forgetting that most people don't have the will, nor the interest to validate facts on their own, so they will always return to a communal source, no matter how much they claim to not trust it.

This part is really well stated.

The success of alternative forms of media require followers with unhealthy levels of anonymity towards the mainstream. For that reason, they will likely never be attractive to most.

"Alternative" to most people means "kooky."

I don't understand what you're saying here. Did you mean animosity instead of anonymity?

 

[Anonymous]

He lost me when he changed his response between Norway and Manchester. So heartless to so reactionary. Must be someone in his inner circle feeding him.

 

[Deleted member 27456]

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!

PC this PC that, can't say this cant say that, who says? who are these lilly livered that say we "CAN'T" where are they from? where do they live? under a tofu burger?
is there a dossier from the mump heads of our UK parliament, saying we cant?
Smiths/moz's lyrics are riddled with ambiguous comments political or otherwise, its really no different to his on going external comments from his songs.

I am going to give you a small example of this PC stupidity, it happened to me i was photographing two local cricket teams back in the 90's, one team was made up of all Afro caribbean players and the other was of all Bangladeshi players a most anticipated game on the local cricket scene, I captured a fantastic shot of one of the Afro caribbean teams player getting bowled out, wickets, bails, the ball all in shot the wickets got obliterated, his facial expressions, he was looking back on the newly decimated stumps, you get the general idea, it went into print, printed half page, despite his bowling out their team won, all's good right?

NO, after the paper went into print, the newspaper I was working for at that time received 30 complaints of racism, accusing me of being a racist, for gods sakes it went on for months, seriously? damned if you do damned if you dont, I was seething, who were they to call me a racist, who were they?
The players grandma joined in on the fake outrage also, it became ridiculous.
The next match I still attended and the player approached me with cricket bat in hand and I thought "here we go, time to use my pugilism skills" but no, he came up and this poor chap couldn't be more apologetic if he tried, it was embarrassing for him to say the least.
Point is, where does this start and where does this stop.
world gone bloody mad! oh and by the way the guy ordered a "11x14" print for his wall, he loved the shot. what a man, what a sportsman!

g23, you speak for yourself and i am certain others would agree with this.

Jason

 

[Nikita]

Then people most concerned with immigrants, and nationalism are the people who don't live around them.

Take a look at the situation in Mayotte.

More generally in France, the best National Front scores at elections are in areas with a lot of immgrants.