Here is an impromptu video Pamela Geller took last Friday night. I was in New York to attend the launch of an important new anti-jihad initiative (more on that later) and ended up talking free speech — which is shaping up to be one of the most important jihad battlegrounds — with the Danish freedom fighter Lars Hedegaard and the indomitable Pamela herself.
An Atlas Shrugs reader transcribed part of the discussion, centering on new attempts to establish a Free Press Society in the U.S. (Hedegaard founded one that is thriving in Denmark):
Atlas Shrugs: What’s the FREE PRESS SOCIETY doing?
Spencer: The Free Press Society is going to RAGE AGAINST OPPRESSION AND INJUSTICE, and BREAK THE STRANGLEHOLD of a dominant dogma that is never to be questioned, and STRENGTHEN WESTERN CIVILIZATION.
Hedegaard: There’s one thing you have to keep in mind. THE BASIS OF ALL OUR FREEDOMS IS THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH. If that is gone, everything is gone.
Spencer: Explain why. You have to explain why. People don’t understand it any more.
[When you have a group] that has the POWER TO RESTRICT SPEECH that descends from its perspective then you have a TYRANNY, [then] that group has hegemony over the others, then the others are MUTE — mute and thus DEFENSELESS in the face of what they [that group] are doing. So the FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS THE CORNERSTONE OF A FREE SOCIETY, because it allows for DISSENT, which BREAKS THE BONDS OF TYRANNY.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS DESPERATELY IN DANGER TODAY IN THE WORLD, not just in America but in Europe — perhaps even more in Europe than in America, but it’s coming here, ladies and gentlemen, its coming.