For the past decade, Greenpeace has publicly insisted that free speech* is not absolute. Rather than regarding it as a fundamental, non-negotiable pillar of democracy, Greenpeace treats free speech like a bit of wire to be twisted this way and that.
Intent on squelching climate dissent, a Greenpeace website says “there’s also a responsibility that goes with freedom of speech – which is based on honesty and transparency.”
What rubbish. Free speech advocacy, extending back centuries, has never placed an asterisk beside this noble idea, and then proclaimed in small print: only applies if you’re being responsible, honest, and transparent. If all it takes to shut you down is someone pointing a finger and yelling ‘dishonest,’ free speech is utterly meaningless.
In legal documents, the contents of which have not been proven in court, Resolute Forest Products says Greenpeace has been using phony photos and phony video footage to falsely accuse it of wrongful logging practices.
It’s critically important to notice that Greenpeace’s defense is not that Resolute is mistaken. Its defense is not that everything it has ever said about Resolute is honest and true.
Its legal strategy is not to show us what transparency looks like by releasing internal documents that demonstrate good faith efforts to triple-check the accuracy of its public statements.
Rather, in a legal document, Greenpeace practically admits nothing it says should ever be believed. Its publications are “well-known for advancing…opinions, not hard news,” it tells the court.
Members of the public “clearly understand” that its accusations against Resolute aren’t scientifically factual but are merely an “interpretation,” it insists. After all, “heated rhetoric” is to be expected in important public debates.
Greenpeace is making no attempt to defend the outrageous accusations it has leveled against a company that employs 8,000 people – many in small, resource-based communities where jobs are scarce. The years Greenpeace has spent trying to harm this company has endangered those jobs.
Now, its position in court amounts to: Hey, we exaggerate. Everyone knows that.
*More on Greenpeace’s peculiar definition of free speech (see the previous post here).
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The greatest failing of humans is dishonesty. I’ll admit to being idealistic, but imagine a world where no one lies. More efficient than the one we live in now. Why does America have the highest per capita ratio of lawyers? Because honesty is publicly admired but secretly mocked. Dishonesty is an item that hides in our bottom line.
If lying is acceptable, then the best liar wins. Helluva way to build a society, then put it on a pedestal for all to admire.
Green peace could elevate themselves to the moral high ground, only to be mocked. Why? Because their adversaries, corporations, are reptilian by design. Profit is job #1.
The IPCC was built on one big lie, that socialism is the better provider, over capitalism. Tax gumption to reward sloth. That plan is DOA.
Well put Sonny. To the modern left words are whatever they say mean today – whatever advances their agenda. The ends, as always, justify the means.
Just like with the Dolphin Safe Tuna Greenpeace will lie fabricate and show faked pictures of the so called killing of dolphins the same way their ruined the lives of west coast tuna fishermen with fake footage now its logging these liars are targeting after all one of their origional founders quit over their going radical