We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Neil Gaiman on the recent free speech madness regarding a line from “Serenity” This story is more than a week old, but the case of how a line from the movie “Serenity”, based on the moronically discontinued TV series Firefly, was used in a free speech crackdown is still worth a mention. Here is a video with Neil Gaiman, the SF writer, about the controversy. (H/T, Huffington Post).
More commentary from FIRE, the group supporting individual rights in the US education system.
Maybe I should wear my own Western-style “browncoat” coat in sympathy. I bought it in Ireland and it gives me a nice “Clint Eastwood” sort of appearance.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Yes J.P. – this is a major libertarian story (not the little thing it appears to be a first glance).
In this are all the basic issues of academic freedom, free speech generally, the right to bear arms…..
EVERYTHING is in this.
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Almost needless to say Fox ENTERTAINMENT (a very different thing from Fox News) cancelled Firefly (which became the film Serenity).
The astonishing thing was that this series was ever made and shown at all.
Call me nerdy, but wasn’t quote in question taken from an episode of Firefly, as opposed to the spin off movie?
The quote is “If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake. You’ll be facing me. And you’ll be armed,” from the pilot episode, which ironically was aired last.
The University of Wisconsin is a state school, so the First Amendment is applicable and the professor was clearly within his free speech rights.
The pilot episode is titled “Serenity,” as is the movie, so I can see where the confusion would come from.
Nice post. Shiny!