Photo: michaelmoore.com
As the presidential campaign showed, a tremendous number of American citizens support Donald J. Trump. A tremendous number of people, on the other hand, think he is an ignorant racist idiot. The paradox of the two sides is that there is a third one. Some of those who consider Trump’s behavior to be not the finest one, still do support him. Many argument it by claiming he is good for the freedom of speech as he speaks his mind. I also think that Donald Trump is highly important for the freedom of speech, but for a different reason. He shows the true nature of citizens who support him and the real issues in the society.
Donald Trump speaks minds of his voters, exactly what they think but are ashamed to say out loud. Political correctness does not allow some individuals express their opinions freely. People who do not agree with the norms often cannot speak their mind in their workplace or elsewhere, because they would be negatively judged as their actions don’t fall under the book of law or moral rules. Therefore, having a third party person who publicly speaks their mind is very convenient. They can support Trump defending their vote as the outcry for the freedom of speech, however, the actual reason is he just shares the same values.
It is always easier to accept something that is closer to you. For example, if someone drives a massive truck that consumes much fuel, and then they hear the two people on the news arguing about global warming, where one says the global warming is real and every individual should cut the emission gasses by switching to hybrid cars or public transport. The other candidate states that the global warming is not real and there is nothing to worry about. The individual would be more likely to accept the opinion of the second one, as it would not require them to change their lifestyle and feel guilty about the harm they did. This analogy works well with Donald Trump. He tells us that we don’t have to be responsible citizens anymore. There is no need to respect others any longer. Trump promotes ignorance, by making us believe that our problems are caused by immigrants, Muslims, Russians, anybody but not us. I believe that his supporters share at least some of his ideas, and we can now see the scale of it.
Furthermore, Trump is a good phenomenon that challenges freedom of speech and its limits. No country in the world has an absolute freedom of speech, and the United States is not an exception. The guy might be an idiot in some sense, but he totally shows how society reacts to different words said publicly. He shows, that by saying something that is not that far outside of the norm, one can inflame national hatred and lead to physical violence as the rallies showed. This brings to another question what freedom of speech is good for, and if it exists at all, but I wouldn’t go that deep.
Next time when you hear someone defending Donald Trump, because they support freedom of speech, seriously consider that they are actually supporting his ideas, but are ashamed to admit it. Somehow they are right, that he is good for the freedom of speech though. He helps to demonstrate what many fellow Americans actually stand for, as well as challenges the concept of freedom….