What do you think of freedom of speech?

[SCS 7,443]

I think most people these days have little or no understanding of what freedom of speech was intended to be by the founders of the US, nor do they understand what it truly should be, and why.

 

People these days think that freedom of speech means that anything anyone shits out their ass is sacred art and should be protected by our first amendment rights, and anything less is downright tyranny, dark ages shit. This is fucking insane. 

 

Freedom of speech was designed to protect people from actual oppression: you know, like the government killing you and your family if you spoke out openly against it, or didn't practice a certain religion. It wasn't designed to make it okay for people to shit out whatever soul-crushing, disgusting, offensive, degrading, civilization-destroying shit they wanted without any care for anything (i.e. children, the world, civilization, morality) other than their paycheck.

 

People like to pat themselves on the back for being "super enlightened" by calling people like me bigots, stuck in the dark ages, etc, but these "super enlightened" people are going to destroy civilization if they're allowed to run around unchecked.

[Trot Shuffle 3,599]

Everyone has the right to say what they want, but I've found more often than not that anyone using "freedom of speech" as a way to excuse what they said doesn't have anything meaningful to say to begin with. That may just be my personal experience though.

It's interesting how many use it, after I've given these kinds of interactions some thought. It's become a vicious "I have my freedom of speech, but YOU DON'T" mentality and I hate it. All it's done is bring out anger and frustration between everyone, distracting from the actual problems that would be more meaningful to discuss and deal with. Courtesy is extinct, I feel.

If you say something, you gotta understand that other people also have their freedom of speech to respond however they want to you in return. If everyone has their freedoms, then everyone has their freedoms. Not just you.

And yeah, considering the era when the words "Freedom of Speech" were penned, Americans of the day were literally under tyranny and imprisonment by the British government of the time. Not a single person was allowed to say anything negative about anything British. Hence "Freedom of Speech."

Or, at least that's the very summarized version off the top of my head. That history is a much more dense subject on its own, I swear you'd need a million pages for it.

[TBD 17,228]

I think these days people are abusing it to cancel culture and promoting false statements to justify their beliefs and hate. Overall I don’t care what you have to say- but don’t come on the stage without preparing a materials. Because at this point, I rather have a clown who, as part of the act knows what he’s gonna say or do to come up to the front and give me a speech.

[Fluttershutter 2,122]

and characters and stuff

 

 

[Reiki Knight 13 1,466]

Freedom of speech by simple definition should mean that the government cannot interfere with whatever you desire to say so long as that speech isn't something too extreme.

Now by extreme I mean something like inciting violence against one or more person's, and or causing a panic that sort of thing.

So basically so long as your speech is not in of itself commiting a crime government cannot interfere with it.

And no BTW there is no such thing as "hate speech" even the craziest and most extreme idiots have freedom of speech again unless it is of a direct criminal nature.

Yes, I know there are certain idiots I'd love to see STFU but sadly freedom for one has to mean freedom for all (even the fools).

The reason being is once you start dictating what is it is not freedom of speech you get down a slippery slope of where government can just declare when someone's speech is invalid based on whatever loophole you just gave them. 

Which is exactly what they are doing under the guide of "hate speech" or "misinformation" right now.

Did you think Facebook and other social media sites suddenly decided to combat such things and begin censoring people on their own?

If you did then you do not how these things work.

Unfortunately, actually proving government is directly involved is difficult so social media areas can get away with such censorship.

Really though it's not their place to declare what is or isn't misinformation nor anything else.

I have had friends get out in "Facebook jail" at least 10-12 times because they posted something Facebook didn't like for example.

And guess what was considered "misinformation" ANYTHING that went against the public government narrative usually.

One of those things that make you go "hmmm, what ab interesting 'coincidence' here .."

 

 

[GodlyWolf 1,678]

On 2015-01-09 at 10:04 PM, OG CHUCK said:

I was see in what happen in france and I was thinkin freedom of speech it worth it

What do you think of freedom of speech ?

You free to comment I dont judge

I think yes but with respect to other people and religion

I completely agree and I think that was the intention when we received that right. It has only become a problem with millennials and gen z who seem to hate being told something they don't agree with. I don't understand why they hate something they have the ability ignore, counter in debate, or just walk away from. Words of others can hurt, but you have multiple options on how to avoid having said words harm you. You are ultimately in control of what you hear and what words can hurt you.

 

BTW I'm in the millennial generation. I just don't agree with alot of what my generation is doing and after.

[Envy 6,000]

I think it's a necessary right. I think it was established in the USA mainly for purposes of allowing criticism for the government, and also as a religious freedom protection, so as to avoid blasphemy laws from being able stand. Both of those are critical rights that authoritarian governments and churches want to crush.

However, like many other freedoms, it can be abused. And sadly, with the manner of human nature, abuse becomes rampant. With the forms of mass media we have now that the founding fathers could not fathom of, what's spoken/written has a large influence. Those with ill intentions of spreading around disinformation take advantage of this. And boy are they in modern day USA. Disinformation is rampant. Just straight up lies are out there being delivered to large, gullible audiences and it's really harming the country. Shouldn't there be some compelling for people to be truthful? Of course, that's murky water. Where then, do you draw the line? And a government is run by people, so it can always call the truth disinformation, which would be a HUGE problem.

It seems like freedom of speech should remain in-tact. It is important. I just wish people would understand that freedom of speech is a government matter, it's not a matter in terms of how businesses, social media platforms, content creators, moderate their content/coworkers. This is something that I think a lot of people don't understand. They think that being blocked by someone or being banned from a social media platform is a violation of freedom of speech, it is not. Business, social media platforms and individuals have the right to regulate your speech on their platforms/grounds/etc.

As for my original point, about how freedom of speech is being abused to spread rampant disinformation. I seriously feel like this is destroying the US. I feel like it's leading us down a dark path that might eventually end up resulting in the end of the nation. But I do not know the proper solution to this problem. Regulating speech by law is not the solution, for the problems I mentioned above. And sadly, social media platforms and the like are run by individuals who have varying opinions, they are not bound to the truth. Just seems like human nature is going to be detrimental to itself here.

We just need a society that values the truth, values critical thinking. We are not there right now. That is what we need to solve, but we're barrelling in the opposite direction and I don't know to change this.

[daviddaviddavid 772]

Freedom of speech is valuable, and should be preserved at all cost. Diversity of thought and ideas is what drives change and innovation within society. Plus, what kind of person are you if you don't let someone speak up against you? This trend of trying to censor anyone who doesn't spout whatever the mainstream narrative of the day happens to be is appalling.

 

"When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say.” - GRRM

[Clawdeen 12,110]

And so I shall and look spooky while doing so.
 

[Props Valroa 26,051]

There is freedom of speech. But freedom after speech is a different story.

[MadWitchJay 186]

15 minutes ago, Props Valroa said:

There is freedom of speech. But freedom after speech is a different story.

That does not sound like freedom of speech to me, but what do I know.

I'd say you are free to say whatever you want, but yeah be ready for consequences, and you may have said something to incriminilize yourself.

Still allowed to say it, but dam is it stupid.

[Iforgotmybrain 3,518]

32 minutes ago, MadWitchJay said:

That does not sound like freedom of speech to me, but what do I know.

I'd say you are free to say whatever you want, but yeah be ready for consequences, and you may have said something to incriminilize yourself.

Still allowed to say it, but dam is it stupid.

Similar to how I feel. Government shouldn't be allowed to silence its citizens. Especially in response to protests or dissident opinions. But citizens shouldn't be free from the consequences of what they say either, socially at the very least.

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

Freedom of speech is as necessary as any basic human right. Yes, it can be abused by some, but that can be said of any freedom, and a few bad apples shouldn’t be allowed to destroy the world for those mature enough to conduct themselves appropriately in civilized society. The Constitution allows for freedom of speech and yet it isn’t really true because very little of the Constitution seems to apply anymore as long as opportunists use unjust laws, media and social conditioning to manipulate people to their will. No one is truly free in a cancel culture environment, or in a country whose industries bend to the loudest common denominator rather than the silenced majority. If people don’t stand up for their rights they’re going to lose them. And I’m afraid that’s already gone past the point of no return.

[TheRockARooster 47,335]

Moments ago, Dreambiscuit said:

Freedom of speech is as necessary as any basic human right. Yes, it can be abused by some, but that can be said of any freedom, and a few bad apples shouldn’t be allowed to destroy the world for those mature enough to conduct themselves appropriately in civilized society. The Constitution allows for freedom of speech and yet it isn’t really true because very little of the Constitution seems to apply anymore as long as opportunists use unjust laws, media and social conditioning to manipulate people to their will. No one is truly free in a cancel culture environment, or in a country whose industries bend to the loudest common denominator rather than the silenced majority. If people don’t stand up for their rights they’re going to lose them. And I’m afraid that’s already gone past the point of no return.

So true, Dreamy.