Free Speech In The Custodial State

A point I am fond of making is that without freedom of association, you cannot have any other liberties. You can have the appearance of choice, like when you stand in the breakfast cereal aisle at the grocery store, but you can never have real choices. The state not only puts you in that supermarket, but they also put you in the aisle, along with a bunch of other people. In order to prevent a riot from breaking out, the state must supervise your speech, your actions and make sure you focus on picking from the options on the shelves.

Whether or not our rulers know this is debatable. A feature of post-modernism is that the people in charge forget everything learned by prior generations regarding the human condition and human society. People used to know the link between free association and other liberties. It is why the state regulated public airwaves. Because it required effort to avoid speech broadcast over the air, that speech had to fit community standards. Speech that took effort to consume, like pay services, were free from state censorship.

Anyway, the Left is in something close to a full panic over the oral arguments in Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The reason for this is the way Judge Gorsuch questioned the attorney for the homosexuals. He correctly pointed out that the “remedy” for the alleged discrimination, is to force the baker to say things in public that he would never say and that he finds offensive. Gorsuch did not say this, but this is how Chinese communists punished heretics in the Cultural Revolution.

Colorado Civil Rights Commission

Put another way, the “remedy” for those not wanting to associate, in this case do business with another group of people, is to frog march them into the public square and force them to say things they think are false and possibly evil. Of course, it is the only remedy, short of genocide, which is possible in a society without freedom of association. Once the state can force you to be around other people, people you may not like, they have no choice but to supervise your speech, your thoughts and your every move. You are a slave.

That is the reality of the custodial state. The people in charge see themselves as your caretakers, like a babysitter or care giver. In reality though, you are their slave, because like a slave, you no longer control your body. They control where it is and what it is permitted to do. In this particular case. the state is trying to force this baker to perform his services for the homosexuals. The efforts to punish him are no different from a slave master flogging a runaway slave. It is to send a message to the rest of the slaves.

The homosexual Slate writer senses this reality, but he cannot bare to face it because it means questioning the One True Faith. Even worse for him is that homosexuals have created an identity, a sense of worth, based on this notion they are a protected class, given special liberties. A white man can be run out of his job by Antifa loons and no one from the local Civil Rights Commission is coming to his aid. Homosexual terrorists can stalk the nation’s Christian bakers and they get the full support of the state.

What makes this case frightening to the Left is that there is no way for the court to rule in favor of the baker, which does not undermine the foundation of the modern special rights movement. Let us say they carve out a religious “exception” to the laws providing homosexuals with special status. The court is, in effect, saying that religion ranks higher than sexual proclivity. The gays move down a peg. What happens when the court has to choose between Jews and Nazis? Or Muslims and Jews? It quickly becomes untenable.

This is also why the Court will have no choice but to rule against the baker. The three lesbians and Breyer, of course, are predictable votes against liberty, but Kennedy and Roberts have proven to be dependable defenders of the Progressive movement. Kennedy authored the ridiculous gay marriage ruling, after all. Roberts is smart enough to see how ruling for the baker will unravel the Progressive project, so he will probably produce some tortured logic to justify the state compelling forced confessions from heretics.

This is the other consequence of eliminating freedom of association. The cost of restoring it always appears too high. Most Southerners before the Civil War understood that slavery was untenable, but the cost of ending it was worse. That is what is facing the guardians of our custodial state. They know the regime cooked up to address blacks in the 1960’s can only lead to tyranny, but unraveling it offers near term costs that seem more frightening than whatever comes at some later date. Things will just have to run their course.

It will not end well.

 

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Peter
Peter
6 years ago

The right to free association is one of the most basic human rights there is, and why the 1964 Civil Rights Act was so catastrophic. We have been paying the price ever since. Think about how much damage LBJ has inflicted on this country. He ushered in a huge expansion of the welfare state, opened the borders to the Third World in 1965, got us involved in the Vietnam quagmire. He has to rank up there amongst the most destructive Presidents in US history

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
Reply to  Peter
6 years ago

When you review history you see that, with the exception of Lincoln and the Bushes, the worst Presidential traitors were usually DenonicRats. Wilson, FDR, LBJ, the gay mulatto, all knowingly promoted legislation and Constitutional Amendments that effectively destroyed the posterity’s ability to defend itself.

vlad
vlad
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
6 years ago

the gay muslim mulatto

Cloudbuster
Member
Reply to  Peter
6 years ago

Him, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt (the first truly progressive President and the man who single-handedly put Woodrow Wilson in office by deliberately splitting the Republican vote), Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt. The five worst Presidents in history.

Herrman
6 years ago

The state should not be allowed to force a baker to bake a cake. Conversely, the state should not be allowed to prohibit a baker from making a cake. I don’t know why these things need to be so complicated, when in reality they’re so simple. The thirst for power I guess.

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
Reply to  Herrman
6 years ago

The “state” should not be allowed to force a person to buy an insurance product, but they did. All they have to do is redefine the terms. A mandated purchase of health insurance becomes a “tax”. Remember, your (((enemies))) will almost always try to do things “legally” even if they have to do so unlawfully.

Anti-Gnostic
Anti-Gnostic
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
6 years ago

The “state” does no such thing. It is the people through their representatives by way of legislation that mandates insurance or insists that whites and blacks live in the same neighborhood. You have the liberty to live among your own kind. Just do not expect some of your kind who live among you to be shamed to discriminate merely because the Alt Right demands I must. In other words, if I lived in your neighborhood, and chose to rent my upper flat to a darkie, you have no right to intercede. Furthermore, freedom of association does not mean unfettered freedom… Read more »

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
Reply to  Anti-Gnostic
6 years ago

This qualifies for the finals of the most ignorant post of the day. Let’s see if it wins.

pimpkin\\\'s nephew
pimpkin\\\'s nephew
Reply to  Anti-Gnostic
6 years ago

I’ve given you an upvote because (a) you seem to be trying to make a point, and not just trolling. That’s healthy and good.

Moreover, (b) I haven’t seen the term “darkie” used at this site maybe ever, so that’s new; the last time I saw “darkie” in print, it was in a Woodrow Wilson campaign poster on display in the DC ‘Newseum’ three years ago,

BUT:

I don’t get this sentence: “American normies have become far too integrated for racial separatism to ever be practical, moral justifications aside”.

Could you unravel that for me, please?

Cloudbuster
Member
Reply to  Herrman
6 years ago

The reason they are so complicated, in practice, is that they would require federal government to remove all restrictions imposed on private individuals and businesses in the name of the Civil Rights Act, which would cut the balls off federal government power to meddle in our lives. They are objectively unconstitutional.

No government agent or representative wants to do that. Conflict of interest.

pimpkin\\\'s nephew
pimpkin\\\'s nephew
Reply to  Herrman
6 years ago

Diocletian attempted to freeze the laboring classes of his troubled empire by ruthless decree – you will do what your father did, and your children will do what you do. His solution to imperial crisis was to criminalize the human spirit. If the requirements of Empire clashed with the basic yearnings of human nature – to his way of thinking – then so much the worse for human nature. We are witnessing the same attitude from the panicked rulers of our time. They don’t know what to do, except to weaponize conventional thinking, much as the last emperors in the… Read more »

UKer
UKer
6 years ago

If the state forces a baker to make a cake, what does it do if the product turns out to be like chewing wet cardboard?

Of course it is possible that the ‘victors’ hate cake and wouldn’t dream of eating it, but if they did and it wasn’t to their tastes, what then? Another court case with experts from all walks of cookery?

Spherical_Cube
Member
Reply to  UKer
6 years ago

Don’t give them bright ideas.

fodderwing
fodderwing
Reply to  UKer
6 years ago

Indeed this will not end well. I’ll be damned if any government will force me to bake a cake. If they try it, they’ll have to have their goons monitor my kitchen 24/7 to make sure I don’t spit in the batter.

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
Reply to  fodderwing
6 years ago

Just spit? I think a dump would be much more appropriate. Especially if it was chocolate. “What’s that taste?” “Oh, just some Sumatran coffee, mixed with the Chilean truffles and the Moroccan chocolate”.

Tax Slave
Tax Slave
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
6 years ago

But I see corn!

Karl McHungus
Karl McHungus
Reply to  UKer
6 years ago

I wonder why the baker doesn’t just charge $1m for gay themed cakes.

Spherical_Cube
Member
Reply to  Karl McHungus
6 years ago

You do know the next step is price controls. And then if that makes baking cakes unviable, well, you have to stay in business anyway or go to jail. Also see: Zimbabwe.

Tax Slave
Tax Slave
Reply to  UKer
6 years ago

Hmmmm…it looks like chocolate…but tastes like…!

Cloudbuster
Member
Reply to  Tax Slave
6 years ago

It’s OK. As leftists like to tell us, adding a little shit to the mix doesn’t ruin the whole thing

Teapartydoc
Member
6 years ago

Christian bakers. Heck, try being a Christian physician. You have no idea what you are forced to listen to and observe, and ultimately participate in. No fucking idea.

Din C. Nufin
Din C. Nufin
6 years ago

I sincerely hope you are wrong. A labor secretary coached a lesbian couple to file against an Oregon bakery for the same “crime” and awarded them $50,000, $50,000!, effectively putting the bakery out of business, and birthing a new extortion industry. Well, not so new, blacks have been extorting businesses since 1964.

James LePore
Member
6 years ago

If the baker loses, the next step will be to extend anti-discrimination laws to personal interactions. If someone suspects you don’t like them (and won’t play golf with them, for example) because they’re gay (black, trans, female, etc.) they can sue you for monetary damages. Or, better yet, they can go to the police who will be obligated to arrest you and send you on to trial and imprisonment. In their heart of hearts this is where the Cult wants to go.

Bill+Jones
Member
Reply to  thezman
6 years ago

Bake the sodomites a cake. Just bake it for 12 hours.

Epaminondas
Member
Reply to  James LePore
6 years ago

And in our heart of hearts, we want to destroy them before they can put their plan into operation. They came perilously close in this last election.

calsdad
calsdad
Reply to  James LePore
6 years ago

Which is fine – because then the logical groundwork has also been laid for things like saying you’ve been discriminated against sexually – because somebody denied you access to their private parts. Once men start making that case – then you’re guaranteed to get women all pissed off – and now you’ve got (yet another) instance where the lefties are stabbing themselves in the eye and the different corners of their coalition are fighting tooth and nail against *each other*. Follow the logical train of events from this happening and you end up right at that “not going to end… Read more »

The last heeb
The last heeb
Reply to  James LePore
6 years ago

You say that in jest, but that’s really the left’s end game plan. Absolute mandatory association. Except for the Jews.

DLS
DLS
6 years ago

I would like someone to sue jewish bakers for refusing to make a cake with a swastika, and jews to sue muslim bakers for refusing a Star of David cake. If a bakery could be identified as liberal, I wonder if they would make a pro-life cake. I’m sure there are plenty of gay bakeries. Let’s see if they would make a cake with an Old Testament verse about the sins of homosexuality. Let’s see how this plays out if liberal oxen are gored.

Epaminondas
Member
Reply to  DLS
6 years ago

There is a Jewish jeweler near me who makes perfect replicas of Nazi memorabilia…cuff links with SS emblems, etc. ….so I imagine there are Jews who would definitely bake a Nazi cake for the right price.

Ingot9455
Ingot9455
Reply to  Epaminondas
6 years ago

Ah, but the question is not if you can find an appropriate baker. It’s if you can force a particular baker.
There are hundreds to thousands of bakers who would love the business of baking these fellow’s cake. But they want the one guy who politely told them no.

Al from da Nort
Al from da Nort
6 years ago

The root of this weedy tangle is the demand of gays to be affirmed by everybody else, not just tolerated. This is unique even in our wonderful special victim olympics. As a contrast, the much maligned Jews do not demand that everybody else must sing Chanukah songs upon request (if there are any such things) or set up menorahs at this time of year. As I understand it, the baker was willing to sell the loathsome lesbos any cake off the shelf. What those malignant ‘pink guards’ of the gaystapo demanded was that he custom make them a cake with… Read more »

Saml Adams
Saml Adams
Reply to  Al from da Nort
6 years ago

In the Fortune 500 world the term is “celebrate”. Every year is a tiresome rotation of “celebrations”. Thankfully I was out of the country when in our “celebration” of trannies, my staff was shown a video, including some fairly graphic sections on “transition”. When I got back from Asia it was a solid week of people coming in to complain. To a person they were willing to respect and treat anyone with compassion, but this had clearly crossed a line.

Al from da Nort
Al from da Nort
Reply to  Saml Adams
6 years ago

Saml; Yes, the ‘live and let live’ and ‘no harm to anyone else’ rhetorical justifications for gay ‘civil rights’ from the ’90s have long ago proven to be lies. This case just puts it into the headlines. One did not have to be a genius to see that having usurped the Black Civil Rights Movement’s rhetoric, the gays were going to take over their formidable legal apparatus as well. There was just too much easy money to be made. Too, there was the revenge element driven by their hatred for normal Western society that they just couldn’t resist. The ‘marvel’… Read more »

vlad
vlad
Reply to  Al from da Nort
6 years ago

And there we have the bottom line for all leftist plans. You MUST publically and enthusiastically go along with The Plan. As with diversity — the idea behind it is that it is always taken for granted that we all (must) agree that the collective (mind) wins over the individual. And if the collective minds making the decisions are inside bodies of differing skin pigments, it has the added advantage of letting “the leaders” decide who will be IN each collective and who will be out…very convenient and allowing certain people to wield much power over others.

Guest
Guest
6 years ago

This shop is about 10 miles from my house and I have followed the case fairly closely. I am an attorney. The baker and his attorneys are litigating the case as a first amendment free speech case, but it’s also touched with the first amendment freedom of religion. The theory of the case is that the coercive power of government should not be used to coerce an individual to engage in speech that endorses a particular viewpoint. In this case the speech is creating a cake that is custom-decorated to celebrate a same-sex marriage, to which the baker objects on… Read more »

Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle
Reply to  Guest
6 years ago

Thanks for your comment. It’s bizarre that speech includes making something. People say one thing and do something else all the time.

I have read an article on the baker and he says it’s to do with the fact that he’s an artist and he can’t be compelled to make something he doesn’t want to make.

Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle
Reply to  Guest
6 years ago

I’ve read an article in the NYT and the baker is making the free speech and religious argument. Maybe he has to but it’s stupid.

Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle
Reply to  Guest
6 years ago

What the baker should do is sue the gays for saying he’s not an artist.

Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle
Reply to  Guest
6 years ago

Can a lawyer decline to accept a client just because he doesn’t want to? Just curious.

Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle
Reply to  Guest
6 years ago

In other words could you say I’d like to help you but I’m not a trial lawyer. Or I’m not a tort lawyer. I’m not a specialist in insurance fraud. etc. Go see so and so. Why on earth can’t an artist say the same thing?

calsdad
calsdad
6 years ago

The homos are stupid – in that they assume that they can just FORCE their viewpoints on people without consequence. They forget that there are a multitude of ways to screw people over and get them back. When I was in college – I worked in a printing plant – 2nd shift. Back then (80’s) – everything closed up at night. So if you wanted to eat – you had to bring something in with you. So one of the pressman used to bring in a nice big lunch (he weightlifted and needed the calories) and then would eat a… Read more »

Dorf
Dorf
Reply to  calsdad
6 years ago

Are people really so ARROGANT to they think there aren’t going to be consequences for their lunacy?

Yes!

calsdad
calsdad
Reply to  Dorf
6 years ago

Arrogance and ignorance are two sides of the same coin IMHO.

Either way – beatings seem to help improve – or subsume the problem.

Rod1963
Reply to  calsdad
6 years ago

Yep that’s the price of forcing people to do something they don’t want to do.

Brian-guy
Brian-guy
Reply to  calsdad
6 years ago

@cal
And here I thought “shit sandwich” was merely a metaphor.

TomA
TomA
6 years ago

The silver lining in these cases is that we get to a breaking point sooner rather than later. The quicker we hit bottom, the higher the bottom will be. The best possible outcome of this dispute is unambiguous persecution of Christian bakers and then in-your-face demonstrations of the latent tyranny that already infects our government and society. We really are not that far away right now. The DOJ/FBI criminality is being flaunted openly in public, so it should surprise no one that the Supreme Court will soon follow suite.

Spherical_Cube
Member
6 years ago

You can make the case due to the Clintons committing so much treason with the ChiComs over the decades that the Democratic Party is essentially the American wing of the Chinese Communist Party. So it would be reasonable they would harmonize their policies with the ChiComs. And the kind of people who support the Democrats would also find ChiCom policy more and more appealing.

Karl McHungus
Karl McHungus
Reply to  Spherical_Cube
6 years ago

You let the GOP off too easily (for Clinton’s enumerable treasons). They were all dipping their beaks into the public trough, too.

Spherical_Cube
Member
Reply to  Karl McHungus
6 years ago

Oh, the R’s aren’t particularly loyal either but they aren’t working for the ChiComs, at least that I’ve heard about.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Spherical_Cube
6 years ago

Just investing with them.
Who authorizes tax incentives and trade deals?

Why, the very people who own large amounts of shares, thru fronts.

Bye-bye, American jobs, hellooo outsize profit margins!

Socialize the costs, privatize the profits, and stiff the commoners whenever possible

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Alzaebo
6 years ago

Can hardly wait for some cuck to say “the only purpose of a business is to make money”- yeah, ask King Leopold, King Cotton, or Uranium One

So selling out one’s country and
countrymen is ‘compassionate conservative kapitalism’, eh?

DrDean
DrDean
Reply to  Spherical_Cube
6 years ago

They aren’t working for the ChiComs, but they are not working against them either.

Bill+Jones
Member
Reply to  DrDean
6 years ago

Why should they be?

Tax Slave
Tax Slave
6 years ago

Any Christians here up to visiting a Muslim baker demanding they make a First Communion cake? Then file a lawsuit, well, that’s if you make it out if the bakery alive.

A.B. Prosper
A.B. Prosper
Reply to  Tax Slave
6 years ago

If Christians had a fraction of that willingness to act they’d get a lot more deference from the Left and a lot more converts there was a lot of action in that direction on the abortion issues well into the 90′. Its my opinion that attacks on abortion clinics while illegal and as I’m somewhat pro abortion something that I obviously dislike contributed to the huge decline in abortions and to the fact that wide swathes of the country have no such clinics Muscular, masculine crusader Christianity works. That aside, Christians that assume the general population is generally highly religious… Read more »

Epaminondas
Member
6 years ago

It makes no difference how the government defines “discrimination”. If they can use force against it, tyranny is subsequent. When the 1954 Brown vs. B of E decision was handed down, that was the end of our rights of association. Once that step was taken, what was the difference in denying service to a black person and denying service to a gay person? There was no difference. The government could now order us about ad infinitum. And does. You are right, Zman. This will not end well.

Occassional Commenter
Occassional Commenter
6 years ago

A while back, I did an internet search on the percentage of gays in the US population. The results consistently read 2 – 4%, varies by region. I did another for percentage of transsexuals; that returned about .01% . Why is it that these very small minorities have such an outsized influence in our society? This is truly tyranny of the minority. If these numbers are anywhere near correct, a courageous politician (yes, I know — an oxymoron!) might gain significant traction by asking a basic question: when does the majority get to have a say on how far, and… Read more »

vlad
vlad
Reply to  Occassional Commenter
6 years ago

Absolutely. I had read .03% for the transgenders…many of us have been on the planet a long time and never met one. Yet something so basic as the freedom to not have the opposite sex in your bathroom is upturned. TSocial media sites are full of little 14year-old girls righteously indignant that rational people are not making “rights for trans people” a priority in their lives. That proves it’s about power and control, not “equal rights.”

Observer
Observer
6 years ago

Yeah.
Obtaining freedom of association should be the Alt Right’s #2 goal, immediately after repealing Hart-Celler.
If people can freely choose who they live around, hire & do business with then people can sort themselves into self-selected communities with their own standards. That breaks the insane prog tyranny imposed from above, forever.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Observer
6 years ago

Javits followed up Hart-Cellar with the Fair Housing Act, meaning they can keep chasing us out to yet another profitable subdivision.

All they need to do is authorize some Section 8 housing and here we go again.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Alzaebo
6 years ago

Ah. Section 8 or Habitats for Humanity.
Jimmy’s running a property scam under a moral cloak.

Subsidize the costs, privatize the profits!

Brother+John
Member
6 years ago

Finally! Someone besides me framing this as a question of freedom of association (and of property rights) instead of just an issue of conscience or religion.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Brother+John
6 years ago

Yes, thak goodness- just a marriage, as in gay marriage, is properly a property issue.

Who inherits? was the original legal question addressed by standard marriage licensing.

Conservatives seem unable to supply a proper legal answer to anything without making it a ham-handed social issue… just like their beloved liberals. Same agenda, power, same motives, assumed authority.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Alzaebo
6 years ago

thank, as

Brother John
Member
Reply to  Alzaebo
6 years ago

Yer kinda missin’ the point there, Sparky. In the first place, this “gay wedding cake” fiasco is a question of free association and property rights. Does a property owner — in this case, a proprietor — have the right to do business with whom he wants, or does he need to serve instigators and trouble-causers and shit-disturbers, too? Plainly, he has that right; if this becomes about anything else, a minefield of unintelligible carve-outs and exceptions results. As for “gay marriage,” that’s a different question that should have been settled by states, not by the Supreme Court finding imaginary things… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Brother John
6 years ago

Agree with you on both 100%.
Plus, “sparky” is so funny! Good on ya.

Capnbill76
Capnbill76
6 years ago

Of the many articles I have read on this topic, yours provides the most clarity.

Corn
Corn
6 years ago

OT but speaking of freedom of association I’m sure most of us here have heard of the August Ames suicide?
For those who didn’t August Ames was a porn actress who refused a role in a porn movie because she was informed she’d be having sexual contact with a man who also acts in gay porn movies. She was attacked on twitter and other social media for “homophobia” and after a few days of twitter storm she killed herself.
As Ramzpaul said we’ve gone from “Bake my cake bigot!” to “Suck my d—k bigot!”

james+wilson
james+wilson
Reply to  Corn
6 years ago

Maybe this girl was in the wrong business if she could be shamed into anything?

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Corn
6 years ago

And celebrate it, h8ters!

james+wilson
james+wilson
6 years ago

There can exist no freedom of association without freedom to not associate. When Charles Dickens toured America in 1842 he described Americans, who still maintained an unalienable right to not associate, as an extraordinarily friendly and helpful people, so much so that it wore an Englishman out.

Richter Rox
Richter Rox
6 years ago

Without freedom of association everything else is a degree of totalitarianism .
I am slightly more optimistic on the courts upcoming decision, but it could just be the homemade egg nog.

txjohn
txjohn
6 years ago

“He correctly pointed out that the “remedy” for the alleged discrimination, is to force the baker to say things in public that he would never say and that he finds offensive.” Watch how this happens in a parliamentary set up…same alleged freedoms as the US…BUT… Australia just passed a Same-sex marriage law. Within 24 hours of the new law, which promised a religious exemption for marriage celebrants (especially Christian clergy) the new forms celebrants must submit for every wedding they perform were rolled out. These new forms now include a line asking the celebrant to note the sex of the… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  txjohn
6 years ago

Bloody fooking amazing how popular gay marriage in white countries. As popular as diversity and climate change, eh wot?

txjohn
txjohn
Reply to  txjohn
6 years ago

Bloody damn fool autocorrect
(X where X indicates unspecified, INTERSEX, or indeterminate)

s2698193@mvrht.net
s2698193@mvrht.net
6 years ago

The court already carves out exemptions, but it is for religious minorities (such as a Native American that wants to smoke peyote as part of a religious practice). This also puts the court in a bind. Can it be the case that these exemptions only exist for religious minorities? An honest judge would be forced to say that it must apply for all religious claims or none.

Cloudbuster
Member
Reply to  s2698193@mvrht.net
6 years ago

Some of the religious exemptions that have been carved out are suck stark violations of the first amendment that they are shocking to the conscience. Take Amish exemption from Social Security, for example. In that ruling, the court set a standard that effectively renders many religions invalid or second-class for the purposes of social security exemption. In other words, in direct violation of the first amendment, the government has decided what a valid religion and religious belief is: From the SSA website: Meet the following requirements: * Be a member of a recognized religious sect conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits… Read more »

Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle
Reply to  s2698193@mvrht.net
6 years ago

I may be wrong but I think the baker’s argument isn’t about religion. It’s about being forced as an artist to make something he doesn’t want to make.

Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle
Reply to  s2698193@mvrht.net
6 years ago

And I’d add it’s not about freedom of association. He’d sell a cake to homosexuals. He’s not putting up signs saying “no gays.” His argument is that he’s an artist and shouldn’t be compelled to make something he doesn’t want to make. Hollywood, sports and commercial art are comprised of people paid by the hour. They are hired to mass produce images and gestures that entertain and sell products and brands. Artists work for themselves. Sure, they get commissions but they can reject the commission if it’s not their thing. You don’t expect a landscape painter to do your portrait… Read more »

walt reed
walt reed
Member
Reply to  Dupont Circle
6 years ago

The Baker made the very clear point that he serves every single person who walks into his store and wishes to buy any product on his shelves. He does not believe he has to take a commission to create something he doesn’t agree with. Queer cakes are not on the shelves.

Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle
Reply to  walt reed
6 years ago

The baker studied fine arts somewhere I believe. He views his work as art objects constructed with flour and sugar. You can eat them if you want to.

I don’t know if people here are familar with Richard Sera. He has become quite famous and equally arrogant for thinking up vast slabs of metal which someone else fabricates. I can picture his reaction if a stranger walks into his studio or gallery and demands he make a realist crucifixion (he’s Jewish) or maybe a confederate general – without irony. And if he doens’t do it he will be sued. LOL.

ten to 2
ten to 2
Reply to  Dupont Circle
6 years ago

Or imagine a car painting firm owned by a gay person, asked to paint anti-gay slogans on a car. Can he refuse?

The entire case is an abomination.

Ace Rimmer
Ace Rimmer
Reply to  Dupont Circle
6 years ago

Just so. It’s the same as Jordan Peterson’s argument opposing the compelled speech of all those zees and zirs and wolfkins out there.

“If they fine me, I won’t pay it. If I am jailed for that, I will go on a hunger strike.”

He sets an example.

PRCD
PRCD
Reply to  Ace Rimmer
6 years ago

This is what I meant by “civil disobedience.” An example was set by the public official in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. She chose jail instead. Ultimately, I think the results of this decision will decide whether Christians can go into certain professions or not. In the Patristic era, converts in certain types of professions had to renounce their professions before they could be baptized and join the church. Public officials, especially publicans, were in this category. Civil disobedience is not as civil as refusing to pay a fine. SInce wealth is electronic nowadays, the… Read more »

pimpkin\\\'s nephew
pimpkin\\\'s nephew
Reply to  Dupont Circle
6 years ago

Hooray for ‘Dupont Circle.’ When even Z-man, of all people, accepts the pseudo-premise that this is about ‘religious freedom’, I for one hear the hoofbeats of doom. Religion is not the issue at all. I blush for anybody that can’t understand these things. It’s like saying that if there is no law against providing a particular service, then you MUST provide that service no matter what you think about it, if you are competent to provide that service. For instance, if you are a professional photographer and are asked to film an orgy, then you MUST do it. I never… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
6 years ago

A commentor here pointed out that “created equal” simply means no privileged nobility or born aristicracy.

With the Civil Rights run around the Constitution, manufacturing privilege is all our new aristocrats seem to do.

Secondly, I don’t want a cake.
I want the bakers to s**k my d**k.

It’s legal! And I’m entitled! I have needs!

Christopher S. Johns
Christopher S. Johns
6 years ago

And lo, it becomes excruciatingly obvious why our custodial masters worship at the alter of “diversity” before all others – the more more vibrant the “diversity,” the more babysitting the plebes will require.

Nedd Ludd
Nedd Ludd
6 years ago

Rep. Steve King tweeted yesterday: “Diversity is not our strength. Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, “Mixing cultures will not lead to a higher quality of life but a lower one.” Check out the tidal wave of virtue signaling in response to his tweet: https://twitter.com/SteveKingIA/status/939117527375990790 Walter Shaub‏Verified account @waltshaub 22h22 hours ago Lisa Jones helped low-income communities gain access to investment capital to fund healthcare centers, charter schools, daycare centers, housing, small business and commercial real estate projects. Who does your hateful tweet help, Steve King? Walter Shaub‏Verified account @waltshaub 22h22 hours ago Hongwei Hsiao improved the safety of construction workers,… Read more »

PRCD
PRCD
Reply to  Nedd Ludd
6 years ago

No civilization can survive such treachery from within. This is why I’m not a white nationalist – half of my kind want to enslave me. ZMAN is correct that they will attempt to force us all to say certain things. They tried to enforce similar laws on first century Christians. For example, first century Christians were accused of atheism and denied entrance to the agora because they wouldn’t participate in the imperial cult (emperor worship). The cult required you to offer incense to a statue of caesar before you could buy and sell in the marketplace. Recently, in Michigan, a… Read more »

TheHammerToss
TheHammerToss
Reply to  PRCD
6 years ago

One quibble, PRCD. The U.S. is not a nation-state, it is a polyglot empire, composed of many nationalities. Hungary, Japan, and Korea are much closer to true nation-states.

I wouldn’t mind living in a nation-state, but I want nothing to do with living in an empire.

Cloudbuster
Member
Reply to  Nedd Ludd
6 years ago

Diversity is scientifically proven to be beneficial.

Satan’s greatest victory of the 20th century was to make “Diversity is our strength” into an unarguable truism on zero evidence.

LoveTheDonald
LoveTheDonald
Reply to  Cloudbuster
6 years ago

Actually, Vizzini, I’d have to say Satan’s greatest victory in the 20th Century was the sexual revolution and the promulgation of the birth control pill. I gotta think if white folks were still having large families, there would be a natural push back against this diversity crap.

A.B. Prosper
A.B. Prosper
Reply to  LoveTheDonald
6 years ago

The US fertility rate hit low levels in the 1930’s before the pill and feminism , no Satan required This is a normal expected outcome of an urbanized industrial society with economic issues Until people get the idea that the baby boom was an anomaly through their thick skulls. actual policy that could increase birth rates won’t happen This means no more counting on religious revivals, (hasn’t worked anywhere) a need to understand the economic conditions,and the social ones have changed and understanding that the pill isn’t going anywhere and while a ban on abortion could happen, you’ll reduce the… Read more »

Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle
6 years ago

Poor ol’ f**ked up white men. Screwing themselves again. In the 80s when homosexuals gave themselves AIDs I thought it’d be over. Surely, we would hold them accountable. Nope. The gays were energized! We’re victims! The poor ol’ white Reaganites caved and couldn’t bear being called homophobes.

Imagine holding motorcyclists or rock climbers accountable for engaging in dangerous behavior! Oh the horror!

White men are stupid cowards and deserve their fate.

Spherical_Cube
Member
6 years ago

Avoidance of definite short term costs at the expense of ambiguous future benefits that would outweigh the costs? You should read _The Culture of Contentment_ by Galbraith.

I guess this ends in chaos, then.

Old Rod
Member
6 years ago

It was said 11 years ago that Roberts was a progressive, and therefore, a very bad choice for Chief! History has proved the validity of that statement. Roberts is a lefty. the bakers should fear.

Mark Matis
Mark Matis
Reply to  Old Rod
6 years ago

And dear ol’ Johnny was recommended to Shrub II by Ted Cruz…

trackback
6 years ago

[…] Free Speech In The Custodial State A point I’m fond of making is that without freedom of association, you cannot have any other liberties. You can have the appearance of choice, like when you stand in the breakfast cereal aisle at the grocery store, but you can never have real choices. The state not only puts you in that supermarket, they put you in the aisle, along with a bunch of other people. In order to prevent a riot from breaking out, the state must supervise your speech, your actions and make sure you focus on picking from the… Read more »

Paul Martin
Paul Martin
6 years ago

Anti-discrimination laws will always be in conflict w free association, religious freedom, free speech etc. because they conflict with basic human nature. Especially egregious when sexual preference, an exercise of homosexual free will, overrides the free will of others. Kennedy may try to reconcile his farcical Obergfell ruling but the reality is that anti-discrimination laws need to be struck down as they relate to individuals and businesses.

Mark Matis
Mark Matis
6 years ago

It is this country’s “Law Enforcement” who enable this treason. Once they and their families start dying, things will quickly change. I know where they live in my neighborhood. How about you?