Zooey Deschanel Quotes
The Internet's like one big bathroom wall with a lot of people who anonymously can say really mean things. It's fine, I believe in freedom of speech and I think people should think what they want, but I don't care to hear it.
Deschanel, Zooey. Interview. Marie Claire, Sep. 2013.
She was commenting on a suggestion that a Twitter User had made that any individual who felt he/she was being harassed by insulting Twitter messages, could have Twitter delete the offending content. Some of the Twitter campaigns against an individual has been gross, indecent, cruel and for the most part untrue. Hence the request. The person who perceived that he/she was being harassed was free to bring a lawsuit against the sender for defamation if the material is untrue and the person is not a Public Figure. The latter have no general right of redress in the courts.
She was commenting on the many people on the Internet who will attack people on the Internet but who would not do it in public to the person's face. These people are often referred to on the Internet as "Trolls". They are very brave and often outrageous on line, but would rarely be so in person of public. Psychologists call this the "Online Disinhibition Effect."
Part of the right to freedom of speech is the right to criticize, disparage or insult. However, there are some people in the world who do not believe in freedom of speech or expression and not only believe that certain types of expression are blasphemous and sinful, but some believe that it is their religious duty to kill the blasphemer. In this case a film was made that was not only intellectually an attack on Islam but it was done in such a manner that most orthodox Muslims were insulted and offended that their Prophet and religion were both insulted in a blasphemous manner. It was a film that was very much in poor taste, insensitive and gross. In the Islamic world, some extremists use incidents that they call blasphemy to whip up large crowds who riot, destroy and in many cases kill innocent people who have nothing to do with the alleged blasphemy except that their employer might be a company in the same nation as the blasphemer. These fanatics also hold governments responsible for blasphemy if they do not violate their own laws and constitutions and interfere with their citizens right to freedom of speech and expression. For people like Bollinger, this raises a terribly difficult situation and as he points out in this quotations free speech can have serous repercussions almost anywhere in the world. Others observe that every time we even discuss the potential repercussions, the enemies of freedom of expression win, and have a chilling effect on the rest of the world. They urge ignoring the consequences and avoid rewarding the enemies of freedom by giving them an influence on our freedoms and practices.
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, model, musician, and singer-songwriter. She made her film debut in Mumford (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous (2000). Deschanel is known for her deadpan roles in comedy films such as The Good Girl (2002), The New Guy (2002), Elf (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Failure to Launch (2006), Yes Man (2008), and 500 Days of Summer (2009). She has also ventured into dramatic film territory with Manic (2001), All the Real Girls (2003), Winter Passing (2005), Bridge to Terabithia (2007), and The Driftless Area (2015). From 2011 to 2018, she starred as Jessica Day on the Fox sitcom New Girl, for which she received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.
