I am not against freedom of speech; it is, after all, one of the most important democratic values. But I am starting to think, albeit not without reservations, that some people should just be made to shut the fuck up. Some people spew such hatred, such bile, that they should be denied the right to air their views.

Part of me can’t believe I just wrote those words, but that is now what I think. Yesterday I came across a picture on facebook of a small child with Down’s Syndrome with the words ”Here’s the thing: I have a really awesome life…There is no prenatal test to predict that”. It struck me as cool, so I simply pressed share; it was a simple but sot on message about disability. I thought no more of it till some time later, when I noticed that it had been seen and reshared by an online associate of mine. Through him, it had come to the attention of a certain, well-known disablist bigot who I won’t even dignify by naming. She had predictably replied with her usual unthinking, moronic bile about how infanticide should be legalised for parents of disabled children and about how ” Mothers of disabled children [sic] ought to be ashamed of themselves. They really should have the decency to shut the fuck up than to encourage the rest of the world to glorify disability and degeneracy.” I know I should ignore this crap, and that the person in question is no more than a lonely, ill-informed old woman craving attention deluded enough to think people listen to the piffle she spouts. But I cannot let the fact that she insulted the mothers of kids with disabilities stand.

My mother is a noble, loving woman; I think back too to the mums of my school friends, deeply loving an supportive of their kids. To see this online nobody call them degenerates and to seek to dispute, as she did, the right to life of the child with Downs, to me goes beyond the pale. Such people must be brought to account for their arrogance and hatred. She seems to dispute the fact that people with disabilities are valuable members of society, and accuses anyone who argues against her of being emotional, feminine and wimpish. Well, perhaps my argument is indeed invested with strong emotion – after all, she is questioning my own right to life just because I don’t fit her narrow-minded idea of ‘normal’ – but it is also based on cold, hard facts. Any life can be productive, any life can bring joy. I know many people with disabilities who contribute far more to society than some ill-informed old woman spewing bile over the internet all day. Thus her arguments are not based on evidence, morality, economics or any other thing she tries to pretend they are, but sheer, pure, unthinking intolerance. If they had been, I would have less of an argument: how could I possibly argue that someone has no right to say what they say if it was grounded in some degree of truth? But there is no logic behind what she says, only a bigoted dislike of difference.

On such grounds, I think I am within my rights to call for her to be silenced. She has, in effect, called for my death after all, so I am not being unreasonable. A lunatic shouting in the high street that the Jews or black people should be gassed would surely be arrested and possibly sectioned; in a way, this is no difference. She is being a public nuisance, actively upsetting people, trying to question their very right to exist. Why should anyone have such a right? in spewing such intolerant, murderous bile, has she not forfeited her right to free speech? Of course, this is only my blog, and writing it will achieve nothing, but I will not let such hatred go without calling it what it is: the ranting of an ill-informed, bigoted woman whose unfounded ravings symbolise absolutely nothing. Just shut up, bitch, nobody who matters cares what you think.