CT Blue

If you spend much time at left leaning blogs you have no doubt read more than one comment about the tendencies of right wingers to express rather strange ideas about rights. For example, it is a common argument on their part that gay marriage somehow tramples on their right to religious freedom, inasmuch as they apparently feel that their right to that freedom necessarily implies a right to impose their “values”, such as they are, onto others.

Is it good news or bad news that this sort of thing is not unique to the land of the the free, but is apparently widespread? In fact, there are folks abroad who make our Southern citizenry look like pikers in the victimization game. Consider this story, from today’s New York Times.

Apparently, the head of an Italian fashion house had this to say about in vitro fertilization:

Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce have found themselves at the center of a viral social media campaign after the pair criticized in vitro fertilization and nontraditional families in an interview with the Italian magazine Panorama. “I am not convinced by those I call children of chemicals, synthetic children,” Mr. Dolce told the magazine. “Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalog.”

“The family is not a fad,” Mr. Gabbana added. “In it there is a supernatural sense of belonging.”

Apparently this didn’t sit well with Elton John, who along with his husband has two “synthetic” children. He called for a boycott of the label.

The first reaction of the fashion kings was so breathtakingly shameless it no doubt made Pat Robertson jealous:

Mr. Gabbana struck back against Mr. John on Instagram, calling him a fascist and posting “Je Suis D&G” in an echo of the “Je Suis Charlie” cry after the attack in January on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

That’s right. When Elton John used his freedom of speech to tell one and all he would no longer buy the overpriced crap these guys produce, he was just like the guys who killed those cartoonists for exercising their freedom of speech. But John’s freedom to speak isn’t the issue; the issue, according to Gabbana and Dolce, is their freedom of speech, the only freedom that counts. Like their brethren here in the states, they believe that when they speak, there should be no consequences. (This rule applies only to those on the right; those on the left who speak freely must not only suffer the consequences, but they must shut their mouths.) So, if we bring this thinking a bit closer to home, if I walk into a Bess Eaton and they are showing Fox News, not only must I not protest, I cannot turn around and get my coffee and carbs elsewhere. I must plunk down my money there, or I am depriving Bess Eaton (corporations are people remember) of its right to free speech. And lets not even get into my longstanding one-man boycott of Walmart. I hesitate to speak for the Founders, but I will anyway: Jefferson and Madison would be perplexed.

Lest you think I am misinterpreting their initial defense, consider their frantic attempt to backtrack:

On Monday, Mr. Dolce and Mr. Gabbana tried to stem the backlash. In a statement issued through the company on Monday — the same one he posted on Instagram — Mr. Gabbana said: “We firmly believe in democracy and the fundamental principle of freedom of expression that upholds it. We talked about our way of seeing reality, but it was never our intention to judge other people’s choices.”

So you see, it is about free speech, and apparently also about their right to be completely disingenuous. The offending quote was nothing more nor less than a judgment about “other people’s choices”, but according to Gabbana and Dolce it was nothing of the sort. Orwell would understand, though one doubts he would approve.