I believe in free speech

 When I was a young man I remember a couple of stories (I think they were basically in the Christian media of that time) about angry Christian leaders organizing rallies in which they engaged in the burning of certain books and rock and roll record albums which they found to be offensive. Some of these Christian leaders believed the materials contained messages which were evil and destructive.

I also recall reading an editorial, at the time, in which a Christian writer (I no longer remember who the author was, this was more than 35 years ago) opined on the matter and explained that attempting to censor the books/albums was not only ineffective but it was, also, a flawed idea. The editorial writer basically explained that it was more honorable to talk about and debate the thoughts and ideas that were found to be offensive. He wrote words to this effect: Honestly engaging with the issues and carefully explaining why they are wrong is the better, wiser approach, rather than attempting to censor them through burning and banning.

I appreciated the thoughts of this Christian editorial writer and agreed with him. Even though I am a Christian, I disagreed with the censorship which was being attempted by certain Christian leaders.

I believe free speech is an important value which is worthy of protection.

That is why I also disagree with the censorship which is being attempted now by certain people and groups, including big tech social media platforms.

If people disagree with what is being expressed let them defeat what they understand to be weak, incorrect, offensive ideas/positions with logic, reason and truth.

Censorship does not defeat bad or false ideas, it pretends they do not exist. That works beautifully…until it doesn’t.

The people who were, on principle, against censorship those many years ago, should still, on principle, be against censorship today. Right? Or were they only principles until they were no longer necessary? If those principles have changed then they were not genuinely held principles, back then. They were tactics that were convenient for a particular moment in time.

Once censorship is accepted by large numbers of people, we are a short distance away from far more disturbing treatment of people who do not embrace what are considered the correct ideas and positions of those in power. I am hoping there are truths we stand for whether we are on the left or the right of the political spectrum.

We don’t all have to agree on everything

The Phony Outrage Community And The PC Police Are Killing Free Speech

We have come to a point in our culture in which a person can say an innocent, relatively innocuous statement and suddenly be descended upon by the perpetually outraged PC Police.

By the time the self-appointed arbiters of what-is-allowed and what-is-not-allowed are done with their campaign of demonization against the hapless speaker of the politically incorrect word/phrase the very fact that the person actually exists has been brought into question.

What happened to freedom of speech?

It is on the endangered list.

What happened to a robust exchange of ideas?

It is frowned upon.

Jerry Seinfeld recently spoke about the “creepy” PC culture that now prevails on American college campuses. This is why he will no longer perform at colleges. Sadly, many of these institutions which—at one time—existed to promote a wide and freewheeling exchange of ideas have become the places that are least open to differing thoughts and opinions.

If things keep heading in this direction, soon legitimate discussion of certain subjects will no longer be allowed. There will be the culturally approved position on topics and all other positions will be banned. (And you will be obedient if you know what’s good for you…you punks!)

It’s too bad. I remember a particular class back when I was in my senior year of high school (approximately 145 years ago) in which we debated the current issues of the day. (Some of the issues are still hot button topics today, believe it or not.)

There were strong differences of opinion expressed. We argued. We even yelled occasionally. But we also laughed a lot and teased each other mercilessly. No one ever whined and complained with great indignation about being offended. It was fun. As a matter of fact, I recall it being one of my favorite high school classes. And then we walked out of the classroom and we were still friends. Crazy, huh?

What bothers me the most about the “I’m-offended-by-everything” crowd is that they are trying to pull all the rest of us into their dull, uptight misery.

I like to kid around, joke and tease in a fun way. I think it’s healthy for people to play around in this manner. Life can be very serious and it is important have some laughter, lightness and mirth. When I was young, a little teasing was even a way of being affectionate with friends. But I find now I do a lot of this joking around only in my own head and never out loud. When technology becomes sophisticated enough to actually read my thoughts and it is discovered I am teasing people in my mind, I’m really going to be in big trouble. (Maybe I’ll be old enough to blame it on senility when this technology is prevalent.)

[ Imagining some point in the future.]  “Are you kidding?!? You can’t take anything we read in Dan’s mind seriously! For crying out loud, look at the old codger, he’s drooling again!!!”

I have expressed a lot of foolish and cringe-worthy thoughts in my life. I’ve been wrong, misinformed, ill-advised, exhibited poor judgment and have drawn the wrong conclusions on many occasions. The truth is, we have all done this. Right? We’re human.

But if we have a culture that allows regular people to have freedom—including freedom of thought and speech—then us regular people are bound to get it wrong sometimes. I would prefer we put up with regular people saying dumb things than living in a culture in which the PC Police and the Phony-Outrage-Community control everything that is said.

“We must picture hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives with the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment.”

C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

*NOTE:  By the way, I wrote this thought yesterday and have started to post it several times and then stopped. Ironically, I’ve been hesitant to post a thought about not being able to share certain thoughts because I didn’t want someone to read it and then be hurt, or bothered, or offended. But I’ve determined it is important to express thoughts—particularly thoughts that make a case for protecting our freedom to express thoughts.

*FINAL NOTE: If this post truly irks you and you are deeply offended by it, keep in mind that sometimes computers get compromised and something gets posted on a person’s account by nefarious, politically incorrect hackers. (It’s theoretically possible, right?)