Sunday, November 20, 2022

You cannot have a true democracy without freedom of speech

Yes. Freedom of Speech can be quite annoying. I remember being with a bunch of teenagers who were throwing bricks through the windows of the local Nazi headquarters in Glendale, California maybe around 1964. However, even they had the right to freedom of speech. I wasn't one of the brick throwers, most of the brick throwers lost a father or uncle or grandfather to the Nazis in World war II.

However, you cannot have a truly well functioning democracy without "Freedom of Speech". It doesn't matter whether what people say is likeable or awful or what. The important thing to understand is that if you do NOT have Freedom of Speech you really cannot say you are living in a democracy.

Enough said.

I remember sayings like "Better Dead than Red" which you would often see on college campuses all over the U.S. in the 1950s when the communists in Russia and China became the next boogeyman after Hitler and Tojo died. And to look back now upon this kind of thinking now is maybe sort of horrific. But, it happened.

People used to tolerate divergent points of view better here in the U.S. (but not without some violence). So, if you have Freedom of Speech you are bound to have some violence around this issue.

However, if you prevent Freedom of Speech (in any way) you do not live in a democracy either. YOU might live in a fake democracy but not a real one.

IF you look carefully "What is a democracy?"

It's a war of words hopefully instead of a war of armies fighting,

which appears to be the best we can do as a human species for now regarding governments

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