Turn Right

There’s a commonplace confusion between rights and wrongs which, if clarified, might go a long way toward healing the ruptures in contemporary society.

Unlike moral dilemmas involving an existential choice between good and evil, “rights and wrongs” need not stand in opposition to each other. One can well claim his rights, the ethical and legal license to do something, while recognizing that it might still be wrong of him to actually do it.

Consider the case of morally repugnant speech. Until not very long ago, at least, liberals were fond of citing Voltaire, that Enlightenment icon (and unrepentant anti-Semite), for the view that “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

The problem is, however, that people using that line often put all the emphasis on its latter half, while never actually getting around to expressing their disapproval of the other’s speech. Rights — in this case, freedom of speech — become central, and wrongs — the actual speech of which one ostensibly disapproves — become tangential. And thus, we begin to suspect that the righteous invocation of “your right to say it” is no more than a convenient fig-leaf for the suspension of all moral judgment.