To stop cancel culture from killing society, we need to embrace free speech

The New York Post ^ | Oct. 8, 2023 | Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott

[TBP]

What matters more to the maintenance of a free society: laws that support free speech, or a culture that supports it?

To answer that question, take a look at these three speech protections, each of which is legally afforded to citizens by different countries:

“Everyone shall be guaranteed freedom of thought and speech.”

“Citizens are guaranteed freedom of speech, the press, assembly, demonstration, and association.”

“Everyone has the right to express and disseminate his or her thoughts and opinions by speech, in writing or in pictures or through other media, individually or collectively.”

These all sound like relatively principled, robust guarantees … until you find out that they’re the promises of Russia, North Korea, and Turkey, respectively — three countries with nightmarish records when it comes to upholding human rights.

There is a long list of countries with decent speech protections on the books that fundamentally undermine them in practice.

Therefore, good free speech laws + bad Free Speech Culture ≠ free speech in practice.

And, on the flip side, the Enlightenment flourished in eighteenth-century France, yielding great works from the likes of Voltaire and Rousseau — in spite of the fact that the French government and the Catholic Church alike constantly tried to stifle and even imprison many Enlightenment thinkers.

In short, Free Speech Culture + bad free speech laws = can still facilitate the French Enlightenment.

These contrasting examples reveal just how important a Free Speech Culture is to a society.

[TBP]

It's about borders, language, culture, as Dr. Savage has said, and one of the most important aspects of culture, as these authors and Glenn Beck and others have long argued, is a culture of free speech.

You don't need free speech for speech you like, but for the speech you detest.

[lightman]

“I may disagree [vehemently] with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”

Yes, anti-Semites, poofters, uber”evangelicals”, islamists, chicoms...BRING IT ON!

[Gene Eric]

To the contrary, the Speech antagonists would be wise to embrace their mortality.

[ronnie raygun]

Embrace? no forcefully inject with no recourse

[ExTxMarine]

The whole point of free speech being a deterrent is no longer valid because SHAME is no longer allowed to be applied to people with stupid, deadly ideas!

My granddaughter had a Junior High School project where she was told by her teacher, “No idea is a ‘bad’ idea if you truly believe in it.” She was talking specifically about homosexuals and their life choices.

I asked her, very simply, so does that mean Hitler’s final solution was not a “bad idea”? I mean Hitler TRULY BELIEVED in his final solution! Of course, she backtracked and said, that involved killing people. I explained that homosexuals and lesbians, both have shorter life expectancies than heterosexuals. Which means those lifestyles cause quicker DEATH (is that not killing people)?

I then came up with something else: OK, if I wanted to cheat on your grandmother, and I truly believed that was what would be best for ME, then is my idea a good or bad idea?

She relented and even went back to the teacher with some of my examples (put them in the paper she was working on) and the teacher gave her a “C” because her arguments were “weak”. And when she asked her teacher about it, the teacher said, it doesn’t matter - you passed. My granddaughter told her she TRULY BELIEVED those were good ideas, so shouldn’t she get a better grade? The teacher again stated, “You passed.” So, my granddaughter was given a lesser grade because she didn’t go along with the teacher’s premise that homosexual lifestyle choices were “good” because the people truly believed in the idea...all other ideas be damned!

Forty years ago, that teacher would be SHAMED out of the profession and would need to hide her face or find another town to attempt to ruin, because everyone in her current school district would let the school board know she was NOT acceptable as a teacher anymore!! In this day and age, slut-shaming is considered “bullying” and “harassment”, and holding minority criminals accountable is considered “racist”. SHAME on those involved in the hideous acts and to those who protect those involved in such hideous acts!

Nowadays, SHAME is only for those who have standards and principles...it is the reason most GOP-Elites are quick to throw their fellow GOP members under the bus! Because the “look of impropriety” goes against their BS, facade and they do not want anyone looking too dang close to the truth!!