this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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[–] FireTower 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Burning an item be it a flag or a book is a quintessential form of free speech. It's a clear way of expressing discontent towards an idea.

Controversial speech is the most important kind of free speech. If we only allowed speech we agreed with society wouldn't advance and grow.

Ideas like 'Women should get to vote' once were controversial and that expression might have been met in an incendiary manner by it's opponents, none the less that speech was important to protect.

If you only support free speech for ideals you agree with you don't support free speech at all.

[–] gmtom -1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

But not all speech is protected speech. The same should be true here. Like as an extreme example, should the KKK be allowed to burn a cross outside a black person's house?

[–] FireTower 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

On that black man's lawn? No. On their own? Knock themselves out.

Like I said if you draw the line at the ends of your own beliefs you don't believe in free speech. I have enough faith in the general public to come to the correct (read: not the kkk's) conclusion on that matter.

Let them speak, and the world will hear their points don't have merit.

[–] gmtom 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have enough faith in the general public to come to the correct (read: not the kkk's) conclusion on that matter.

Then I would say you are incredibly incredibly incredibly naive, to the point where I don't think you've actually put any thought into it, or a purposefully and wilfully ignorant of all the very blatant and obvious examples where the opposite has happened. Including the very example I gave of thr KKK, as well as antisemitism in the 20th century leading to nazism and concentration camps. Or how about how we've gone from nobody caring about trans people to them having their rights denied across several states. Or how about vaccines going from routine healthcare to a massive hot topic because people pushed it as an agenda.

Do you actually have faith in the general public? Or is the whole "Let them speak, and the world will hear their points don't have merit." Just the canned response you've been given to justify this fetishism version of free speech?

[–] FireTower 0 points 2 years ago

I never suggested that those changes would be instant. You point out concentration camps, racism, & antisemitism as counterpoints. But they are more widely accepted to be wrong today then they've been historically in no small part due to their opponents speaking out against them.

I'd counter do you faith in yourself to make the right conclusion when presented all the information? Have you never changed your stance? If you have what makes you better than the general public?