My views on free speech are shaped somewhat by a conversation I had online with a guy about 20 years ago. I didn't really know him but had seen him around that forum a lot. We argued about free speech for a few days and I really felt I wasn't getting through with my point, which is you must have limitations. His argument, as a recall was more like, "No, it'll take care of itself." He may have had restrictions in mind, but they weren't much as far as I could see, IIRC.
So, finally I decided here's one he will have to address. "So, let's suppose that at 7pm after the evening news when the kids sit down to watch something on TV, some business decided it would broadcast XXX Porn on the TV. Do you think THAT should be allowed?"
His answer was in so many words, "sure." It drove me crazy. His argument was simple in that if it were unacceptable the free market would drive it out. I thought it was insane. We never agreed, but he won the argument, in which I came to understand he was fundamentally correct. (At the time, I knew nothing about him -- today, I know he went on to argue and WIN one of the biggest cases to come before the Supreme Court since then). I was clearly outmatched from the outset, never had a chance.
I say he won the argument because today, I understand the wisdom in having actual free speech. Not just within the meaning of the government purview but in the ultra-wide view of society.
I have seen the twitter mess, of course. But I've also seen people dying of covid because woke-ism won the free speech argument, and science was pushed down in favor of absolutist dogma; where Houston Methodist fired its nurses for not wearing cloth masks when (a) they didn't have enough nurses in the first place, and (b) there was and still is zero credible scientific proof of cloth mask efficacy. They killed Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine when almost no legitimate studies of the protocols that showed efficacy were conducted (the tendency was to try giving these drugs alone, which no one ever suggested was a good idea). They studied everything EXCEPT what worked.
I've seen the anti-Trump lies from newspapers grow for weeks on end while pro-Trump truths were killed before they were ever made public. All lies. No truth. None of it. Two impeachments, no factual reporting. And now a Jan 6 inquisition with NO CROSS EXAMINATION of witnesses, again hiding all truth. One day, CNN reported some BS and claimed they had 22 unnamed sources verifying it. 22! That's got to be true. Of course, nope.
The Hunter Biden Laptop is still behind bars in the FBI's office. Sitting quietly. Where truth can do no damage to the sitting president.
I say open the floodgates. My old arguing partner was right. Sunshine is a great disinfectant. Let's have it. People will learn to sort out truth from fiction.
Having to sort out the truth is better than having zero access to it, and that's what's happened in recent years. |
