On the Freedom to Criticise

When I first began this blog, I was extremely supportive of the resistance that Hezbullah was undertaking, especially in light of the monstrous war against Lebanon in 2006 when over eleven hundred Lebanese people were killed by the Israeli Defence Forces. The fact that I took that position was not because I was forced to do so, but because I was free to make my own mind up and stand by what I believed in. Today I'm doing the same thing in supporting the Syrian people against the brutal dictatorship that is now stomping down on their necks. I don't respect Nasrallah or Hezbullah in the slightest for their sectarian and quite disgusting siding with an oppressor. It seems that not all oppression is the same, and I cannot take seriously somebody who cries crocodile tears for the oppression of the Palestinians whilst in the same breath announces that Syrian blood is not worthy of their support.

The past three months have seen me undergoing a drastic re-evaluation of a lot of my previous positions and I am much more supportive of individual freedoms and the exercising of personal choice without being coerced or intimidated. I also support the freedom to criticise, argue and disagree, something that I have relished doing over the past five years that this blog has been running. What I cannot condone - yesterday, today or tomorrow - is forcing somebody to stay quiet because I disagree with them or - even worse - force them to agree with me. I can be vicious in my criticisms, but it is never personal and never vindictive, only a clash of principles with wit as a weapon.