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What Exactly IS Free Speech?

If you ask a person if they believe in or are for free speech they are very likely to say that they are. But this is a tricky topic, because while everyone feels the strong need to agree that they do believe in free speech, in reality, not so many actually do.

How do you know whether you are an actual free speech supporter? There is a simple test, ask yourself if you try to shut down conversations with people you disagree with or try not to hear it. More importantly, there is a greater question to ask yourself, Do I seek to stop them from sharing their ideas with others?

A new idea in the minds of many people today is the micro-aggression belief. The thinking here is that if you say anything that others find offensive in some way, you have performed a psychological attack on them. Sometimes, these people feel it even warrants them responding with physical force.

We see this culture forming within the corporate world and spilling out into the general community. A perfect example of this is Twitter/Youtube/Facebook and other places that ban or block people due to expressing a thought they deem hate speech. Someone might indeed say something unkind or possibly even truly hateful, but should we censor this behavior?

Nobody likes disrespectful speech, but the problem with trying to force any voices out of an environment is that it has the potential to lead to results you never could have anticipated. To give an example, during the enlightenment, in the early days of the revolution's success few of the participants would likely have assumed they would ever find themselves going before the guillotine, that was for the enemy. However, slandering, spying and reporting became common and a fear set in among the party, eventually the very individuals with the power to do the judging and sending to the guillotine found themselves facing a death sentence by the guillotine as well.

So, what does it actually mean to support free speech?

Free Speech:

Free speech means protecting the right of that jerk you disagree with to say what you dislike, so that the day never comes that you cannot express your thoughts.

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