If freedom of speech doesn't allow for the expression of ideas, opinions and views of facts that others find offensive, or even view as lies, what do you think freedom of speech means?
Freedom of speech means the right to speak the truth as I see it - even if others disagree or are offended. However, if I call you a pedophile in public, freedom of speech is not going to work as a defense when you sue me for libel. Every right has its limits where it bumps up against other rights, in this case your right not be defamed.
According to your arguments about free speech, nobody had the slightest right to object to anything Joe McCarthy ever said, because "the TRUTH is best served by allowing the expression of every voice with a trust in, and a reliance upon, those whose voices hold contrary views to express themselves in opposition". Just because he insinuated that perfectly innocent people were Communists, because they had once joined some union twenty years before that he claimed was a Commie front group, or they had some friend whom he said was a Communist, he was still only expressing his opinion. Freedom of speech, donja know.
There is a difference between honest opinion, political spin, and outright propaganda. As with telling art from pornography, the differences are not easy to classify, but most people can tell it when they see it. |
