Mellencamp on Free Speech, Wrong In Every Way

John Cougar Mellencamp, singer and political idiot, has this to say about free speech:

I don’t think people fought and gave their lives so that some guy can sit in his bedroom and be mean. I don’t think that’s what freedom of speech is,” he continued. “Freedom of speech is really about assembly — for us to collectively have an idea. We want to get our point of view out so we can assemble and I can appoint you to be the spokesman.

That’s freedom of speech — to be able to collectively speak for a sector of people. But somehow it’s turned into ‘I can be an asshole whenever I feel like, say whatever I like, be disrespectful to people and not be courteous.’ It’s not good for our society. Not being courteous is not really freedom of speech.

Wrong. Wrong historically, wrong Constitutionally and, worst of all, wrong morally. If this meme were to become popular, free speech would become a thing of the past. That we're well down that road already, with PC codes in many major universities and even many conservatives claiming that, above all, we should be 'nice', should concern any freedom loving person. Freedom isn't always attractive. But it's always good, the highest social good possible, in fact.