On the idea that Charlie Hebdo "punched down" — Answering Saladin Ahmed

As I would expect, Saladin Ahmed has smart things to say inIn an Unequal World, Mocking All Serves the Powerful. But he's wrong. I left this comment there:


Free speech does not protect the powerful—it protects the powerless from the powerful. In the case of Charlie Hebdo, the people with power had assault weapons, and they followed an ideology that's promoted by princes and financiers.

I'll