The New Thought Police: Inside the Left's Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds by Tammy Bruce, Laura Schlessinger (Foreword by), Laura C. Schlessinger (Foreword by)

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Table of Contents

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From Chapter One of The New Thought Police
My years as a feminist activist taught me many things, including the fact that the essential ingredients in the milieu of social change—freedom of expression and personal liberty—have suffered extraordinary damage in the name of "social equality" or "feminism" or "civil rights." Agendas cloaked in these respected labels of have turned people away from the heart of these ideals and, in some cases, actually reversed social progress for everyone, including women, people of color, and others who have an investment in the quality of life.
There is enormous irony in the fact that it is those on the left—the supposed protectors of all things culturally important—who are exacting severe social punishments on anyone who espouses an idea or opinion that challenges that status quo or may be deemed "offensive" to some special interest group.
There is, however, a method to the madness of those who have chosen to protect us from ourselves.
You see, there is nothing in the theory of feminism or civil rights that requires people to stop thinking their own thoughts. On the contrary, civil rights are reliant on individual freedom. The spiral down and away from individual liberty can be traced directly to the rejection of the rights of one for the rights of the many. This group-rights mentality is nothing new; it is steeped in the "progressive" concept that the individual must submit to what is best for everyone else. This idea stems not from the ideal of civil rights but from the well of socialism, the foundational model of the far Left. Once we accept grouptheory, it not only becomes easier to reject individual rights (like freedom of expression) but actually becomes essential that we do so.


From the Hardcover edition.