\nStill, you seem to want lolicon banned, and people prosecuted for owning it, and I don’t. You ask, What makes it worth defending?<\/span> and the only answer I can give is this: Freedom to write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you’re going to have to stand up for stuff you don’t <\/span>believe is worth defending, even stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not differentiate between what you like and what you don’t, because prosecutors are humans and bear grudges and fight for re-election, because one person’s obscenity is another person’s art.<\/p>\n Because if you don’t stand up for the stuff you don’t like, when they come for the stuff you do<\/span> like, you’ve already lost.<\/p>\n The CBLDF will defend your First Amendment right as an adult to make lines on paper, to draw, to write, to sell, to publish, and now, to own<\/span> comics. And that’s what makes the kind of work you<\/span> don’t<\/span> like, or don’t read, or work that you do not feel has artistic worth or redeeming features worth defending<\/span>. It’s because the same laws cover the stuff you like and the stuff you find icky, wherever your icky<\/span> line happens to be: the law is a big blunt instrument that makes no fine distinctions, and because you only realise how wonderful absolute freedom of speech is the day you lose it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nRead the whole thing. And, for the heck of it, I’ll throw in a parallel thought from another favorite creator of mine, Phil Foglio:<\/p>\n
\nI believe that the First Amendment should cover everything<\/i>. Even the incredibly icky, distasteful stuff. Because if we let “them” start making ethical judgments, they might not stop until it’s nothing but Norman Rockwell and Hummel figurines.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
And, let’s face it — there are some folks who aren’t real fond of some of the more politically assertive Rockwell paintings, either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Not surprisingly, Gaiman writes eloquently and personally on why he supports the efforts of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in protecting comics creators and retailers from censorship, even when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-comics","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49282,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/19\/freedom-of-icky-speech.html","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":0},"title":"Freedom of Icky Speech","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 19-Jan-15 7:49am","format":false,"excerpt":"Neil Gaiman on why you shouldn't just defend speech you like or enjoy or _agree with_ or find pleasant. It's the other stuff that needs defending first, because that's what sets the precedent protecting your stuff. Originally shared by +WIST - Wish I'd Said That: The Law is a blunt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18882,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/10\/unblogged-bits-sun-10-oct-10-1130.html","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":1},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Sun. 10-Oct-10 1130)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 10-Oct-10 11:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Today Is 101010: The Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question [42]: Jesus Diaz Rightwing Violence? It Surely Can\u2019t Be Obama Haters\u2019 Fault - \"Words matter. I don\u2019t ask everyone to love the current President,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13915,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/02\/25\/speakiing-of-neil-gaiman-and-alan-moore.html","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":2},"title":"Speaking of Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore …","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 25-Feb-09 3:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"... as I did in talking about Watchmen, here's an interview Gaiman did with Moore, back in the mid-80s (just before Watchmen came out), and back when a mid-20s Gaiman was writing interviews and articles and such for British men's magazines. Cool.","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28558,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/13\/an-untold-tale-of-morpheus.html","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":3},"title":"An untold tale of Morpheus","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Jul-12 6:41am","format":false,"excerpt":"As Neil Gaiman's \"Sandman\" series approaches its 25th anniversary (!), Gaiman will be telling a new tale (or, rather, a previously untold \"prequel\" tale) this coming year. \u00a0Coolness. \u00a0Reshared post from +Comicbook.comNeil Gaiman is returning to DC Comics to write a brand new Sandman mini-series. Embedded Link Neil Gaiman Returning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/images0-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com\/gadgets\/proxy?container=focus&gadget=a&resize_h=100&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F07%2Fneil-gaiman-returns-to-sandman-199x300.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22002,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/book-review-the-facts-in-the-case-of-the-departure-of-miss-finch-by-neil-gaiman-and-michael-zulli.html","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":4},"title":"Book Review: “The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch” by Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 6-Aug-11 12:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch by Neil Gaiman My rating: 3 of 5 stars Adaptation of a bit of atmospheric trifle by Gaiman, abetted (though not as well as he could be) by Michael Zulli on the art. A Felliniesque \"Twilight Zone\" episode (albeit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7400,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/15\/this_would_be_s.html","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":5},"title":"This would be so cool …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Mar-05 7:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"Neil Gaiman is auctioning off the naming rights for a ship in his upcoming novel, Anansi Boys, proceeds to go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Be immortalized in...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}