Jay Jays has pulled the offending tee-shirts due to public outrage over labelling children with adult foibles. Which has brought up an interesting point - were these tee-shirts considered free-speech?
Normally I wouldn't have thought so, but Whaleoil, who considers himself a conservative blogger, does seem to think so. (Note we had him down under liberal right on our blogroll.)
I think the problem here is that if a person holds to moral relativism as a standard (ie there are no standards, because everyone's standards are different), then it is very easy to get confused in this area.
I believe in free-speech. Not in an of itself, but to protect those who would speak the truth. Free-speech is just a means to an end, not an end itself. The end is truth. We don't want to protect those who would speak lies.
Unfortunately, in a morally and intellectually confused society such as ours, what is truth? Many people can't even recognise it any more. Truths have been replaced by lies and the lies have been hoisted onto petards and adored.
Which comes back to the tee-shirts. Labelling a child with "Miss Wasted" or "Mr Well-Hung" - what truth do they speak of? Children should not be "wasted" and cannot be "well-hung" - there is no truth here not even in the farther-most mind of the most idiotic parent.
All the tee-shirts are, are marketing techniques aimed at parents who would think it funny to mock their children. Even Whaleoil admits he would not let his kids wear them.
Related Link: Ok I'm boycotting JayJay's because they caved ~ Whaleoil
Normally I wouldn't have thought so, but Whaleoil, who considers himself a conservative blogger, does seem to think so. (Note we had him down under liberal right on our blogroll.)
I think the problem here is that if a person holds to moral relativism as a standard (ie there are no standards, because everyone's standards are different), then it is very easy to get confused in this area.
I believe in free-speech. Not in an of itself, but to protect those who would speak the truth. Free-speech is just a means to an end, not an end itself. The end is truth. We don't want to protect those who would speak lies.
Unfortunately, in a morally and intellectually confused society such as ours, what is truth? Many people can't even recognise it any more. Truths have been replaced by lies and the lies have been hoisted onto petards and adored.
Which comes back to the tee-shirts. Labelling a child with "Miss Wasted" or "Mr Well-Hung" - what truth do they speak of? Children should not be "wasted" and cannot be "well-hung" - there is no truth here not even in the farther-most mind of the most idiotic parent.
All the tee-shirts are, are marketing techniques aimed at parents who would think it funny to mock their children. Even Whaleoil admits he would not let his kids wear them.
Related Link: Ok I'm boycotting JayJay's because they caved ~ Whaleoil