Our country is being silenced. One of the most important pillars of democracy is freedom of thought.
Freedom of speech is closely connected to freedom of thought which is vital for democratic governance. There are a number of reasons why freedom of speech is important, if we are unable to speak freely, it is likely that our liberties are being restricted.
One of the theories to support the importance of freedom of speech is the safety valve theory.
The safety valve theory is the concept that we should allow people to express themselves fully and let them “blow off steam”.
If we restrict individuals’ ability to express themselves, they may seek violent measures to get the attention they want for their causes. By even suppressing false arguments or bad ideas, they don’t always go away.
In fact, this will often turn worse with people looking to find others who hold a similar opinion which causes echo chambers. This is something very prevalent in the social media age. On the other hand, freedom of speech would allow ideas to be challenged and battled out so that ultimately they are better understood.
Another theory is the tolerance theory. If we allow people to share a wide range of ideas, this is likely to encourage greater self-restraint and more acceptance as people are more likely to show tolerance.
The art of having a conversation with a person who believes in different things to you is dying. The reason is that we no longer need to associate ourselves with anyone who has a different opinion.
MORE AGENDA-SETTING OPINION:
Protester holds up poster reading ‘truth is not hate speech’
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If we go back to before the internet was born, people were forced to have conversations with each other face to face and often in these conversations there is likely to be a difference in opinion. During these discussions, people would take on new ideas and begin to empathise with the other person’s viewpoint. This is no longer the case.
With the rapid growth of the internet and social media, we can now only associate ourselves with people who think exactly the same thought process. This is how the Scotland hate bill was passed most recently. This is also why we see society increasingly using “phobic” towards people saying things that they don’t agree with.
Throughout time, humans have made mistakes yet we have always found a way to correct them. The way in which we enrich our lives is to live to arguments that we disagree with initially.
Critical discussion is paramount to improving humanity and if we don’t allow people to express opposing beliefs, then they will never be able to advance as a civilization.
Disagreements can change the world and causing offence is not necessarily a bad thing. Most great ideas caused offence at the time but now we look at them as revolutionary e.g. Charles Darwin, Picasso.
We live in an age where people are offended more than ever. This has unfortunately transcended into the daily structure of our lives.
When it comes to thinking or speaking, the most important thing that somebody must ensure is that they do not offend anyone. Whilst it is important to not deliberately offend people, it is damaging to society when this becomes more important than seeking the truth.
We must risk offending people in order to seek the truth.
