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Rosie Whinray's avatar

Free speech is something I've done a full 180 on over the last five years or so. Your basic point is THE basic point- who gets to decide? That's a problem that can't be solved easily, if at all. Underlying the suppressive impulse is the (in my view) extremely fallacious premise that people need to be 'educated'- and if they are sufficiently educated, they will of course think exactly like you think, on every issue... Well, that's just insulting. Who made you God? Sure, argue your corner. Let's have it out. That's philosophy, or the marketplace of ideas. That's how thinking gets sharpened up.

Thank God for Substack- they get this.

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Linn Thorstensson's avatar

I really appreciate your writing and thoughts on this topic. As well as some of the points others have pointed out above.

Of course, where we draw the line is always going to be arbitrary. But for me personally it goes where speech turns into threats.

For most of us who are too young to remember what went on in the East blocks / USSR as well as in the McCarthy era in the US, it is difficult to imagine how censorship can be that sinister. But it was, and it hasn’t gone away.

As you say, banning people from expressing their thoughts and opinions IS a slippery slope… Because the question will always be then; Who decides what is “good” and what is “bad”?

Thank you again for your writing 🍉

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