Mashable’s Mark Hopkins: Apologetics Never Looked So Smarmy

Blogging, Politics

Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins has a post up on Mashable! wherein he exhorts us to remember that with great freedom comes great responsibility.  The (presumably young) Hopkins apparently thinks that it’s OK that a government canes your bare buttocks (I can never write that without saying BUTT-ocks, with a Forrest Gump accent).  Further, it’s OK for them to do that if you call a judge a “prostitute” on your blog.

Dude: that’s called totalitarianism.  You don’t apologize for it.  You fight it, because it’s NOT ok for governments to eradicate the freedom of the people they govern in order to maintain their own hold on power.  Remember the abuses by King George?  Hell, remember the abuses at Abu Ghraib?

The Gopalan Nair case isn’t a case about blogger’s rights, it’s a case about human rights.  If we can’t criticize our elected or appointed representatives, we might as well just bend over for life.

Jump on board the cluetrain, because it’s passing you by awfully quickly.

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3 Comments

  1. Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins  •  Jun 5, 2008 @11:43 pm

    If you think 30 is young, then I’m guilty as charged.

    I am an advocate for bloggers rights, human rights, rights to criticize the government, and free speech in general.

    But the shock and surprise by the blogosphere that when someone goes into another country and breaks their laws, and then gets punished, well, rights may be universal, but laws aren’t. Do you think that Rosa Parks expected her civil disobedience to go unpunished? You can’t do stuff that’s against the law and not expect consequences.

    He may be standing up for what’s right (something I remain unconvinced of – sounds like he was mostly being a jerk), but we have to realize that doing so has consequences that must be faced.

  2. Sir Michael L. Foley  •  Jun 6, 2008 @2:30 am

    Agreed totally.

  3. Damon  •  Jun 6, 2008 @8:04 am

    At first I was going to write a pithy, “To which King George are you referring…” But thought I should read the original post first. I can’t read the entire original post at work because the site is blocked. Fortunately, that irritating Snap window popped up and I got to read the meat.

    While I think Anthony’s sentiment is noble, I have to agree with the gist of Mark’s post. I think we’d all be better off with a little more cross-cultural understanding and an appreciation that just because “we don’t do it that way here” doesn’t mean it’s “wrong.” It doesn’t make it “right” either but “spreading our values” has never ended well for any civilization.

    Good post. Good response. Now I know that I shouldn’t call Singapore judges prostitutes and really appreciate the fact that we have many freedoms others do not have…Habeus Corpus not withstanding.

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