This observation about Senatorial candidate and libertarian scion Rand Paul by Matthew Yglesias could as easily be applied to the stance of the editors at CarnalNation.

Meanwhile, if your definition of “freedom” entails opposition to the Civil Rights Act that just shows that you’re working with a bad, myopic definition of freedom.

Read the quote in context here.

Though he’s trying to walk it back now that it’s blown up in face Rand Paul publicly claimed that the freedom of racist business owners refuse to serve African-Americans should be protected rather than abridged. In other words he believes the freedom of a handful of assholes ought to trump the liberty of 11% of the U.S. population.

The situation at CarnalNation is similar. Last winter ago some asshats with some kind of axe to grind started a website called “Expose a Ho” that offered cash rewards for any and all personal information about several activist sex-worker bloggers, most of whom attended last year’s Sex 2.0 conference in Washington D.C. They then posted the personal information, including photos, on the site.

Their motive was evidently to exact payback for the sex workers having questioned the authenticity of another popular blogger who claimed to be a prostitute herself. (Her claims were somewhat implausible based on her claims of her own practices. More alarming was the sometimes dangerously dubious advice she offered other aspiring sex workers.)

What motivated CarnalNation to publish screen shots of the site that included a photo and personal information of one of the victims is completely beyond me. Their claim however, was that however much they deplored such disgraceful behavior they nevertheless defended, with considerable passion, the site’s freedom-of-speech right to do so.

In other words they believed the freedom of a handful of malicious axe-grinders trumped not only the liberty but the livelihood and personal safety of others.

And so to paraphrase Yglesias, if your definition of ‘freedom’ entails celebration of exposing conscientious whistleblowers to potential personal harm and criminal prosecution (who are or were, after all, professional escorts) that just shows that you’re working with a bad, myopic definition of freedom.

So here’s a good rule of thumb, one that abstractly-principled naifs like Rand Paul and CarnalNation’s (hypocritically) anonymous editorialists should consider before celebrating the sacrifices “we” must make to safeguard freedom: first ask yourself “what do you mean ‘we?’” If the well-dressed African American man threatened with an axe handle by Lester Maddox for entering the former Georgia governor’s restaurant had stood up for that fucking racist’s freedom to discriminate we might be able to take that as one seriously principled stand. Of if targeted activist Kimberlee Klien had stood up for Expose a Whore’s free speech rights we might admire her selfless adherence to principle.

But when smarmy little self-righteous assholes get little patriotic erections about sacrificing other people in defense of their own principles? That’s just whackin’ off in your hat, m’kay? I mean, yeah, you can do it. And yeah, you might even be abstractly correct. But you’re not being courageous. You’re not being heroic. You’re certainly not being admirable.

Because after a long hard day of sacrificing other people’s liberty in defense of your ideals you can go home, put your feet up, and wryly tisk-tisk-tisk about how they’re going to have to seek new identities, change their locks, wash the blood from axe-handle contusions out of their shirts.

I mean yeah, you can do it. But since doing it costs you nothing (except the occasional scolding) there’s no virtue in it for you either.

(I bring the dated CarnalNation post in part because and in part because of its parallels with Rand Paul-related current events, and in part because at least one of the Expose a Ho victims withdrew from this year’s Sex 2.0 conference after learning that members of CarnalNation would be either sponsoring and/or attending parts of the event.)