America 2022: Where everyone has rights and no one has responsibilities
THE conflict between Neil Young and Joe Rogan over the anti-vaccine propaganda Rogan spreads through his podcast triggered a heated debate over the boundaries of free speech on platforms like Spotify and whether one entertainer - Young - had the right to tell Spotify to drop another - Rogan - or he'd leave himself. But this clash was about something more than free speech.
As a journalist who relies on freedom of speech, I would never advocate tossing Rogan off Spotify. But as a citizen, I sure appreciated Young calling him out over the deeper issue: How is it that we have morphed into a country where people claim endless "rights" while fewer and fewer believe they have any "responsibilities"?
That was really Young's message for Rogan and Spotify - Sure, you have the right to spread anti-vaccine misinformation, but where's your sense of responsibility to your fellow citizens, and especially to the nurses and doctors who have to deal with the fallout from your words?
