Do you believe in freedom of speech?

[FROGGEman2]

I personally don't.

Yeah.

Look at it this way, it is illegal to be a KKK member. It is illegal to be a Nazi sympathizer.

But it is legal to be an extremely sexist church member, preaching the ways of your Lord to disguise your phobia of homosexuals.

Your hate.

And with inequalities like this in the system...

Why should we have freedom of speech?

It is better this way.

It is good that there are no Nazi sympathizers, or KKKs.

It is better like this.

What do you think?

 

[lostclause]

It's good but has the potential to do harm, hate speech and misinformation being two major ways as well as inciting panic. So it's good but as I said, it's not perfect.

 

[Kollega]

Yes. Yes i do. It may not be pretty (mad religions,Faux News,etc.),but it's better than censorship. Because when hate is censored,there is a system for doing it. Extending that system to "wrong" political motivations and worldviews is so easy a child could do it.

 

[RavingLibDem]

I personally believe in free speech, because quite often the best way to get rid of these views is to force their proponents to put forward their views in public, and defend them. Once people see how rubbish the arguments that they use to support their position are this is often a good way of actually decreasing the amount of support that view has.

For instance, in the UK we currently have a controversy where the BNP have been invited to speak on Question Time, the BBC reasoning that they have invited every other party of a similar support base before, and that in line with their guidelines they can't justify not allowing them to speak. Now the general reaction of many people has been to decry this, but I want to ask why? Do they think that his arguments actually carry enough weight to survive when put in front of a bench of experienced debaters for 45 minutes? He will be roasted, and his arguments destroyed, and I find it highly unlikely that this will gain the BNP any smidgen of support.

Anyone who think this legitimises racist or sexist beliefs is deluded however, as this is Freedom of SPEECH, not action. Anti-discrimination laws can still exist, but you have the freedom to try and propose your view, as long as you dont act on it when it is illegal to do so.

Anyway, thats my contribution ^^.

 

[CuddlyCombine]

Meh, we've been through this discussion before, but at least this is better than some of the other threads out there.

Yes, yes I do. Freedom of speech is crucial to humanity; while it may not be the most streamlined, efficient, or peaceful thing around, without it we would quickly move away from everything that defines us.

 

[SmartIdiot]

It's not a case of believing in it. It IS and you can't do anything about it. No, certain organisations and people don't deserve the right to exercise it as their views just involve oppressing other people but there's very little that can be done about it except be glad that although most of the world is going down the drain at least most people still know the difference between right and wrong and can (just about) respect one another's right to express themselves (as long as it doesn't involve the oppression of others).

 

[pipboy2010]

It's not a case of believing in it. It IS and you can't do anything about it. No, certain organisations and people don't deserve the right to exercise it as their views just involve oppressing other people but there's very little that can be done about it except be glad that although most of the world is going down the drain at least most people still know the difference between right and wrong and can (just about) respect one another's right to express themselves (as long as it doesn't involve the oppression of others).

Haven't you just illustrated his point perfectly? Freedom of speech for all, except for some. Your argument means that somebody has to arbitrarily decide what's oppressive, what's good and what's bad. And that's not freedom at all.

Not that I disagree with you completely, by the way. But freedom of speech doesn't truly exist, in the same way that democracy doesn't really exist. I wish it did, but the problem is, when you give people the freedom to make choices, you're giving them the freedom to make bad ones as well.

 

[Cxizent]

Yes. Now shutup.

 

[Vuljatar]

Freedom of speech is one of the most basic freedoms we have, and must retain. Anyone can get as offended as they want over whatever, I don't give a shit and neither should anyone else.

 

[Socius]

I belive in freedom of everything!
Anarkism FTW!
though anarkism would work in the world of today.
people are way to stupid and corrupted.
when we all learn to live in peace, Anarkism will rise!
tobad we never will learn how to go around not killing eachother.

 

[Doth]

No, Fascism ftw.

 

[Kollega]

No, Fascism ftw.

I hope you're kidding. I really do. Because Hitlers Must Die!

 

[SmartIdiot]

It's not a case of believing in it. It IS and you can't do anything about it. No, certain organisations and people don't deserve the right to exercise it as their views just involve oppressing other people but there's very little that can be done about it except be glad that although most of the world is going down the drain at least most people still know the difference between right and wrong and can (just about) respect one another's right to express themselves (as long as it doesn't involve the oppression of others).

Haven't you just illustrated his point perfectly? Freedom of speech for all, except for some. Your argument means that somebody has to arbitrarily decide what's oppressive, what's good and what's bad. And that's not freedom at all.

Not that I disagree with you completely, by the way. But freedom of speech doesn't truly exist, in the same way that democracy doesn't really exist. I wish it did, but the problem is, when you give people the freedom to make choices, you're giving them the freedom to make bad ones as well.

Not necessarily, I was hoping I could sneak by with that comment. It's the age old paradox you know, everyone should be entitled to freedom of expression etc. except these guys. Where do we draw the line? As far as someone deciding what's oppressive, that really just stands out itself however when it comes to 'good' and 'bad' it does get a bit trickier. As it stands freedom of expression is for everyone, it's a right even for the most crazed right wing nut job because at the end of the day, no one is going to take them seriously enough/allow them to get so far as to actually start putting their views into action which, in my opinion, is when it's wrong.

Funnily enough I recall having a similar arguement with a girl in my geography class at school when I was younger and... well liked arguing just for the sake of it. She was going on about how nazis and racists shouldn't be allowed to voice their opinions, to which I said they're humans like you and me and have a right to express themselves, even if we don't agree with it. She accused me of being a sympathiser in a very shouting-down-is-the-only-way-I-can-argue-way. She was stupid... wicked fun to wind up though.

 

[Aardvark]

Everyone is entitled to say whatever they want about anything they like. That includes whatever someone else said. If someone disagrees with you, the only thing you can do is disagree back. Once you've gone to actually trying to threaten and intimidate to get your point across, you've shown that your point cannot stand up on its own, voided it and lost the argument, therefore are completely, utterly and totally wrong. Once you're wrong, that's it, it's over, slink back under a rock.

I'd be in favour of a squad of brutal police who go around beating people up who threaten or actively attempt to silence people who disagree with them.

 

[phatty500]

i belive in your right to free speech so long as it does not conflict with another persons rights

 

[The Infamous Scamola]

Wait... it's illegal to be a nazi sympathiser or KKK member? No it isn't. And rightly so.

I believe in freedom of speech for all.

 

[Ninja_X]

I personally don't.

Yeah.

Look at it this way, it is illegal to be a KKK member. It is illegal to be a Nazi sympathizer.

But it is legal to be an extremely sexist church member, preaching the ways of your Lord to disguise your phobia of homosexuals.

Your hate.

And with inequalities like this in the system...

Why should we have freedom of speech?

It is better this way.

It is good that there are no Nazi sympathizers, or KKKs.

It is better like this.

What do you think?

Where exactly are you from?

America does have KKK and Neo Nazi groups, they are all over the place. There just aren't that many.

So America DOES give you freedom of speech, I don't know where you got it in your head that we don't have it.

 

[Spygon]

freedom of speech is a double ended sword as you want everyone to have it but then some people just abuse it.I do think that anybody should have freedom of speech even if they are incrediblily crazy,stupid or evil.