This Is Really About Controlling What Ideas Are Acceptable
However, we know there is no intention of being evenhanded or pluralistic in enforcing this right to equal dignity. Rather, this right will require the government to establish and enforce a philosophical orthodoxy of belief on the populace. In Phillips’ case, they are using government coercion to try to force him to abandon his religious beliefs upon entering the marketplace. They are declaring that his deeply held and peacefully practiced religious beliefs are wrong and shameful.
The government has picked sides and decided that one identity (that of essentialized same-sex desire) is good and worthy of recognition, while another (that of Christianity and its traditional sexual teachings) is unacceptable and has no rights in public. Even if Phillips had crafted the rainbow cake under protest, his disapproval would have been considered a violation of the right to equal dignity.
Under the Left’s legal theories, he could still have been successfully sued for simply stating his opposition to same-sex marriage while making the cake. This is why Colorado’s judgment against him required not only that he create custom pieces for same-sex weddings, but that he also reeducate his staff, including his own family.
This authoritarian turn is inevitable if mere disapproval constitutes dignitary harm requiring government intervention. A government dedicated to protecting a right to equal dignity will have to choose among competing views of human dignity. For instance, although Catholic traditionalists have a well-developed conception of what human dignity entails, I am sure the Left does not want the demands of that view to be treated as constitutional imperatives.
When Leftists insists on a right to equal dignity, they mean only according to their particular views of what constitutes human dignity. Thus, not only will the government have to choose one version among many, in choosing it will declare that rival understandings of human dignity are themselves harmful to human dignity. The supposed right to equal dignity leads to suppressing the rights and dignity of dissenters from government orthodoxy.
Why Demanding A Right To ‘Dignity’ Destroys All Rights And Dignity Itself
Not only is there no constitutional warrant for securing ‘dignity,’ but the equal protection of such a right is impossible. Relying on government to ensure it results in state-imposed orthodoxy.
However, we know there is no intention of being evenhanded or pluralistic in enforcing this right to equal dignity. Rather, this right will require the government to establish and enforce a philosophical orthodoxy of belief on the populace. In Phillips’ case, they are using government coercion to try to force him to abandon his religious beliefs upon entering the marketplace. They are declaring that his deeply held and peacefully practiced religious beliefs are wrong and shameful.
The government has picked sides and decided that one identity (that of essentialized same-sex desire) is good and worthy of recognition, while another (that of Christianity and its traditional sexual teachings) is unacceptable and has no rights in public. Even if Phillips had crafted the rainbow cake under protest, his disapproval would have been considered a violation of the right to equal dignity.
Under the Left’s legal theories, he could still have been successfully sued for simply stating his opposition to same-sex marriage while making the cake. This is why Colorado’s judgment against him required not only that he create custom pieces for same-sex weddings, but that he also reeducate his staff, including his own family.
This authoritarian turn is inevitable if mere disapproval constitutes dignitary harm requiring government intervention. A government dedicated to protecting a right to equal dignity will have to choose among competing views of human dignity. For instance, although Catholic traditionalists have a well-developed conception of what human dignity entails, I am sure the Left does not want the demands of that view to be treated as constitutional imperatives.
When Leftists insists on a right to equal dignity, they mean only according to their particular views of what constitutes human dignity. Thus, not only will the government have to choose one version among many, in choosing it will declare that rival understandings of human dignity are themselves harmful to human dignity. The supposed right to equal dignity leads to suppressing the rights and dignity of dissenters from government orthodoxy.
Why Demanding A Right To ‘Dignity’ Destroys All Rights And Dignity Itself
Not only is there no constitutional warrant for securing ‘dignity,’ but the equal protection of such a right is impossible. Relying on government to ensure it results in state-imposed orthodoxy.