Free Speech

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

This famous quote by Evelyn Beatrice Hall (although nearly always attributed to Voltaire) sums up the message of what I am to say, but I believe that it's an important enough topic that it's prudent to repeat the message from time to time.

I believe that most people do not believe in free speech. From a higher level, I believe that most people do not understand free speech. If you support free speech, then you support the idea that no matter what the content is, you have no issue with someone publishing it, whether that content is an essay about how good the scrambled eggs you had for breakfast were or whether it's a book about how Jews are the cause of all the problems plaguing your country. Notice that supporting their right to say this is not the same as supporting their message.

Free speech is not conditional. You have no more right to it than myself or anyone else on the planet or vice versa. The question I often get when I talk to people about free speech is something to the effect of "so what's stopping someone from writing hate speech against you and what actions would you take against them for doing it?" My response is always the same to both questions: nothing.

If I disagree with something I see or hear, I may rebut their claims, but I will never revoke their right to free speech. In this time of change where information is becoming more and more accessible, we need to defend our right to free speech.

Every day, we're losing our right to free speech. Many people only realize one or two ways this is happening, usually either they see the DMCA limiting what we can publish code-wise or they see the spin we see in the media hiding vital information to give their viewpoint in a biased way. However, those ways are nothing compared to arguably the biggest opponent of free speech: our peers.

Ever since the terrorist attacks against the US, what you can say has been muted in a big way. If you speak out about the government, you're either silenced or spin is added to what you say to the point that the message doesn't carry through. You're called unpatriotic for using free speech, arguably the most American thing you can possibly do. You're threatened with losing your position, your livelihood, whatever it may be. So you fall in line with the rest and forgo your freedom of speech.

Every time this happens, it's one more nail in the coffin of free speech. Every time this happens, it dilutes the right to free speech that everyone else has. This needs to stop.

We need to step up and assert our right to free speech. This isn't just done by blindly arguing against the policies of the government or picketing to show your views on an issue. To assert our rights to free speech, support your opponent's right to free speech. This is the only way that things can work. We can't go on the way we are, silencing opponents while the eyes of the public are turned away.

Keep in mind that although you do have the right to free speech as an individual, it is just as important, if not more so, to assert the rights to free speech as a society. Because although I will support your right to free speech, I would die for our right to free speech as a whole.