When I quote someone, I like to ensure that they've actually said or written the words that I'm attributing to them. However, Peter Cuthbertson, operating on a higher moral plane than the rest of us, doesn't follow this practice.
In his latest 'everyone who disagrees with me is not just wrong but possesses no morality and is probably evil and in the pay of Satan as well' rant, he writes the following:
To understand how the liberal-left sees the world, one only needs to read what they think. Perhaps the best familiar example is Liberal Democrat councillor and blogger Iain Coleman, who recently wrote something which really helped me understand the way people like him think. I cannot find the exact quote, but hopefully someone will point me to it. Anyway, his point was essentially that he was a liberal because he wanted government to be there to ease the social and economic effects of freedom.
Now, if I'm about to not only attribute a quote to someone, but use that quote as a linchpin for an entire post, I'm going to damn well make sure that the person I'm attributing it to has said it, not just hope that 'someone will point me to it'. Now, I read Iain quite frequently, and I'm pretty sure he's not said anything of the sort recently, but I went looking, and I think I've found the quote that Peter was referring to:
As I see it, the state has three relevant duties (so straightaway libertarians are going to get annoyed). First, there's a duty to see to it that people don't do worse for themselves via their free choices than they need to (roughly, a market failure justification). Second, the state has a duty to see to it that neither the conditions under which people interact nor the outcomes of those interactions are seriously unjust (on some specification of what justice involves - which I don't need to spell out here - plug in your favourite). Third, the state has a duty to see to it that the conditions for free and open discourse among citizens are maintained. Partly this is a matter of laws protecting political speech, but also, in my view includes facing up to private threats to free expression, ensuring that one or two magnates don't control the media and so on.
Unfortunately for Peter, that quote is by Chris Bertram, not Iain Coleman. Oh well, I guess it's just exam stress clouding Peter's poor little mind. I hope he attributes quotes properly in his exams.
In his latest 'everyone who disagrees with me is not just wrong but possesses no morality and is probably evil and in the pay of Satan as well' rant, he writes the following:
To understand how the liberal-left sees the world, one only needs to read what they think. Perhaps the best familiar example is Liberal Democrat councillor and blogger Iain Coleman, who recently wrote something which really helped me understand the way people like him think. I cannot find the exact quote, but hopefully someone will point me to it. Anyway, his point was essentially that he was a liberal because he wanted government to be there to ease the social and economic effects of freedom.
Now, if I'm about to not only attribute a quote to someone, but use that quote as a linchpin for an entire post, I'm going to damn well make sure that the person I'm attributing it to has said it, not just hope that 'someone will point me to it'. Now, I read Iain quite frequently, and I'm pretty sure he's not said anything of the sort recently, but I went looking, and I think I've found the quote that Peter was referring to:
As I see it, the state has three relevant duties (so straightaway libertarians are going to get annoyed). First, there's a duty to see to it that people don't do worse for themselves via their free choices than they need to (roughly, a market failure justification). Second, the state has a duty to see to it that neither the conditions under which people interact nor the outcomes of those interactions are seriously unjust (on some specification of what justice involves - which I don't need to spell out here - plug in your favourite). Third, the state has a duty to see to it that the conditions for free and open discourse among citizens are maintained. Partly this is a matter of laws protecting political speech, but also, in my view includes facing up to private threats to free expression, ensuring that one or two magnates don't control the media and so on.
Unfortunately for Peter, that quote is by Chris Bertram, not Iain Coleman. Oh well, I guess it's just exam stress clouding Peter's poor little mind. I hope he attributes quotes properly in his exams.
Nick got away with this at 10:55 AM
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