Torches and Pitchforks

This whole debacle with the Clippers owner is very troubling. Not because of what he said, which was reprehensible, but because of how he's being punished for what he said. He was having a private conversation. He was expressing a point of view, however wrong we all feel it is. But he didn't actually do anything. He didn't commit a crime. He just said something we don't like. So we're vilifying him and punishing him. Is this fair? Is this 1984? Is this political correctness run amok?

Didn't a person's free speech used to be protected? Isn't a person entitled to personal privacy? What's happened to these rights? Somebody says something we don't like and he's a pariah. That shouldn't be happening. It foreshadows other situations which could occur in which someone says something somebody doesn't like and unleashes a torrent of outrage.

What if I said something people didn't like – would they have the right to punish me just for saying it? Not doing anything wrong or illegal but just expressing an opinion that others think is wrong? This is frightening. It's the way totalitarianism operates. Is that where we're headed? A dictatorship of the mob?

I hope not. But it's happening more and more frequently. The same thing happened with Paula Deen awhile back. Nobody is stopping to question the torrent of mob outrage. Where did we put those torches and pitchforks? Let's get them ready, we're gonna be needing them.