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.