My Political Rant Book

Freedom of Speech

This will be a rant about my basic feelings on speech, hate speech, its everlasting impacts, its aftermath and how to deal with the voicing of separate opinions.

So I'm going to start with my most basic understanding of what speech is, what it entails. You feel something, you think it, and you say it. What I'm counting as speech here is something heard publicly. So not a shower singing fantasy in the confined space of your bathtub, nor a self-loathing or self-boosting mirror talk as you stare at your own reflection. A voicing of an opinion, however small it may be, ranging from pineapples on pizza to capitalism vs socialism. Announcing intent, or wishes, or expressing harm to a certain individual or thing, impactful real things in community are what I count as speech.

Of course this is a fundamental right. Speech is often attempted at being contained, in the purpose of "public or national interest", or "offence culture" but the ambiguity of how that even works frustrates me. See, anything anyone says could potentially hurt someone, so how exactly does one freely express their opinion, and does it really matter?

I'm not conflating this with speech having no impact. Speech is a tenant of a functioning society, speech clearly can motivate AND hurt people (verbal abuse is a thing, undeniably) but it's harder to come around. Words sounded with malicious intent, said by a person once, a person who's not that way usually, cannot make that person vile in society's eyes. A person that beats up someone once, however? Even if you were peaceful in the past, society seems to demean you as a violent person there. Because words aren't treated the same way.

And there's actually problems if you treat them the same way. Speech taken out of context, within an era past. People may feel one way and express their opinion, and act another way. For instance, some straight people opinion-wise often believe homosexuality is wrong, but many still treat their actually gay counterparts pretty OKAY. Even if you're not a 100% supportive of the idea, as long as you're not an active asshole about it, who cares? But there again in a moral debate you'd bring up those points. Because actions and words are often different. Beliefs, feelings and actual implementation is different. Isn't that the basis of a free, secular society? You all have your opinions on how shit should be run but you reach a nice social order which works for almost everyone and you're like "yeah, okay, not bad, I can live with this."

Opinions can hurt people, you know? But how much can you really contain speech? How many trigger warnings, disclaimers, sorries must you actually put up? Eventually you'll hear something and you'll just HAVE to ignore it. You need to develop a thick skin. Or you'll drown by the utter weight of all that offence. A meaner way of saying this is not to be butthurt over everything. If you're happy, and okay with your way of doing things, then chug along. 

Places where it's not really that simple is political differences. These opinions may actually shape and influence the election of politicians that form policies which actively work against your own self-interest, which just sucks. But in a democratic society, that's how elections work. Vote for those you want to be in power, and if the one you wanted didn't achieve his power, that's what you'll be left with. 

Religion is something I don't even want to muddy the waters of, because that's an entire subtopic of its own. In my opinion (insert trigger warnings here) religions in the modern age are useless and waste precious time and resources. They're counter-productive and time would be better-spent being utilised in more logical things, like saving our planet. Have you EVER been to a Hindu temple? That food offered to the idol could serve thousands of hungry people in Sub-Saharan Africa. But again, THAT'S AN OPINION. I know religious people, and I don't bash them, despite myself being an irreligious theist. People practicing religion may similarly think irreligious or atheistic people are purposeless and lost without a God, a higher deity to hope in. But THAT'S AN OPINION. Neither of us should go around actively condemning the other. Here, I must say, there's a difference between criticising a religion and criticising a person. I can criticise verses from the Quran as being sexist or homophobic, but I'm not against Muslims, and not on a personal tirade of Islamophobia, trust me. So that's how I believe religion should be treated. The way I see it- God and you is a personal thing, so why muddle it any further by mixing stranger's opinions in there?

An offence-free world sounds so good, but its implementation sounds like, and in some places is already, a nightmare. Infringing on rights has never been good, and this utopian pseudo-fairyland sounds ethically wrong without someone being offended. Case in point: Pronoun legislation. I might rant on that soon, lol.

But then again- without free speech- how else can we have good debate? Then again, I guess we should teach children how to be loving in expressing their opinion, or at least express it in an appropriate setting. Going to the church and yelling random verses from the Bible that are discriminatory help nobody. My points are: (1) Common sense (2) Don't be an Asshole (3) Don't be Butthurt over Anything and Learn To Ignore.