Debate is healthy, and we need it

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The progressive mob is on the march, again. Its goal is almost always to shut down conflicting speech by decrying any dissenter as a racist or misogynist or other form of hater. When they’ve got a media type in the crosshairs, the preferred method used to silence the person they deem offensive is to intimidate advertisers.

Now, it’s Tucker Carlson. On his Dec. 13 show, Carlson discussed the migrant caravan that had arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, and the immigration crisis at large. He said that there’s pressure from “our leaders” to accept immigrants “even if it makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided.”

Monday he continued the theme, saying that in the Southwest, “thanks to illegal immigration, huge swaths of the region are covered with garbage and waste that degrade the soil and kill wildlife.”

On several recent shows, Carlson has interviewed Genaro Lopez, an elected official.

In Tijuana, Lopez lamented the fact that members of the caravan were “trashing the street.” During a Dec. 3 broadcast, Lopez told Carlson that “there’s a lot of trash” and later explained that trash, along with home break-ins, drug possession and public drunkenness had caused local schools to be closed.

Immediately though, progressive groups called for Carlson to be blacklisted for using the word “dirtier.” They hassled Carlson’s advertisers and some have dropped the show as a result.

Carlson did not call migrants “dirty.” We should not ascribe to him nefarious motives based on our own knee-jerk oversensitivity.

We should condemn bullying, blacklisting and boycotts pushed by activist groups. It will harm people on all sides of the political spectrum if this continues and only speech deemed risk-free by advertisers will see the light of day.

The result will be less debate and discussion. Debate is healthy and we need more of it, now more than ever.

— The Boston Herald

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