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Does free speech make democracies more vulnerable to division than dictatorships ?
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this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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No, but you have to remember, freedom of of speach doesn't result in the right to insult or humiliate people, let alone call for violence. Freedom of speech should always be kept in check with protection against discrimination or violence.
The moment people start to try to split up societies (see what Trump does in the US) they're on the road to dictatorships like Russia and China has.
Freedom of speech absolutely results in the right for me to insult people...?
Is it rude? Maybe.
Is it illegal? Absolutely not
yeah, he had me til that. the right to insult is near absolute...kinda at the core of freedom of speech.
Up to a point. When it crosses into harassment, slander, or libel, that freedom can be limited.
While slander and libel are civil issues rather than criminal, that is still a government based limitation on speech/expression.
Yes, Walter, you're right, but you're also an asshole!
Are you alowed to insult a person, yes absolutely, but it only proves you're an absolute asshole. ;)
You can even state you think an ethnic group is bad. You can't state the same ethnic group is trash and should be whatever. That's discrimination and not allowed in democratic or even civilised societies.
In democratic/liberal societies you solve your differences via debate. The result may even be that the parties don't like each other, but as long as they can decide to live in peace together it's alright. Agree to disagree and continue to live your life is fine, trying to harm others isn't.
We have too little of this in our current society, I feel like. "Debates" are often just screaming matches and it's really annoying and holds back progress on all ends I fell like.
Also I wasn't vouching for being an asshole, just pointing out it's not illegal XD
I'd argue that debates aren't useful without a neutral, mutually trusted media source that listeners from both sides would refer to for fact-checking. The US has debates but the soundbites that partisan media air are the main way people consume them. Few people watch the whole debate, and few want to because they're mostly just hot air.
Plus, one candidate can use the debate to lie out of their ass and at least one media source will follow that up by spitting out misleading info to support the lies.
I don't mean to both-sides this, obviously right wing media is more egregious on this front. But their captured audience tuning out fact-checks from other media is maybe the bigger problem.
All of this happening on the sidelines fundamentally alters the purpose of a debate. For example, changing the tone and style of interaction; people aren't trying to come to an agreement or win over new supporters, just shout over someone to get in soundbites that can be replayed by their team.
As a value and as a principle, unrestricted freedom of speech does grant you the right to insult and humiliate people - because "you're trash and deserve to be treated as such" is still speech. It also grants you the right to silence other people, by screaming (metaphorically or even physically) so loud that they can't be heard any more.
However since this conflicts with other rights and it does not scale (no two people in the same room can have unrestricted freedom of speech at the same time), most [all?] laws geared towards the protection of speech draw a line somewhere, and stop protecting your freedom of speech in a few occasions. Where they draw said line is up to the government.