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Forums - Politics Discussion - Freedom of speech is under attack and it could get worse

padib said:
The Fury said:

 

People use the word tin foil hat too easily. The videos on youtube share information that I'm intelligent enough to judge personally whether they hold a candle or not.

And I think that ties what you and I are saying together. Ideas are shared, people should be open to ideas and learn to talk, instead of labelling the thoughts of others as idiotic or paranoid or what-have-you. Upon sharing of ideas, the best ideas (the hope is) should bubble up.

Through sharing ideas, all ideas get challenged, hence allowing for the better ideas to survive, which thus leads to learning.

One of the problem nowadays is that there is to much "ideas" that are shared and not enought facts. So yes education is better than just ideas sharing on youtube, chat or vgchartz. A real ideas discution should start with hard facts and the will to accept that what is considered to be the best ideas by many may be be proven false in the end. If you use your freedom of speech to preach for an idea based solely on belief, that you think that this idea is so good that everybody should believe in it no matter what, that idea becomes absolutism and is really dangerous to real freedom of speech based on facts and search of factual truth. For example,  you have the right to say that you firmly believe that god created the universe, on the other hand you cannot state or force a belief with no facts and say that its true. Freedom of speech cannot be used to spread something false or a belief, that may be true but that cannot be proven as so, as if it was undisputed hard facts. Ideas sharing is not enough if no education and fact checking are included in the process. 

In the end all rights comes with obligations, people tends to forget it.



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OP I agree with you 200% I'm glad to see more people awakeneed. Charlie hedobo is just France's 9/11 so they can slowly take away more rights to "protect their citziens"



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freedom of speech is just another word for "I'm allowed to insult people" and if they react they are evil!



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binary solo said:
There is no country where speech is absolutely free from constraints. It's just a matter of where you draw the line. In parts of Europe it's illegal to deny the holocaust, and some countries will not allow foreign holocaust deniers to enter the country.

And the worst part about this is that some countries simply have a strange definition of "holocaust denial", one that is quite different from what what the intuitive understanding of that phrase suggests.

Here in germany for example, "holocaust" is officially defined as "genocide of 6 million jews". The problem about this definition is the number "6 million": Being sceptical about the number "6 million" alone is enough to be convicted for "holocaust denial", and in practice, most people convicted for "holocaust denial" in germany actually do not deny the holocaust itself - they just publicly question the number of 6 million.

That's ridiculous for multiple reasons. For example, I recently spoke about WW2 with a friend. I asked him if he knew how many germans, how many russians, how many americans, how many jews etc. died. Most of the time he was far off, in case of the jews, he estimated 3 millions. But under official german law, he could theoretically be convicted as a "holocaust denier" for this, even though he simply didn't know one specific number.

And just imagine that one day, scientists might find out that it was really just about, say, 4.5 million jews who were killed. By the official current german law interpretation of "holocaust" stated above, this would mean that the holocaust actually really didn't happen, which is ridiculous.

And setting up such official truths and severely punishing every doubt about them can also lead to ignoring facts: For example, for over 40 years, it was official truth that 4.2-4.3 million people died in Auschwitz. When my school class visited a concentration camp in 1992, we were still taught that number. Nowadays however, it is globally "official knowledge" that only about 1.1 million people died in Auschwitz - so for over 40 years, nobody even realized that this official number was about 300% (=3 million people) off. It took a scientist from a country where "holocaust denial" is not outlawed to prove this - no german scientist had the courage to doubt the official number of 4.2 million people because of fears over being blamed and convicted for "holocaust denial".

Most germans have never even heard about these 3 million Auschwitz victims who quietly disappeared at the end of the 80s/beginning of the 90s. And many of those who get convicted for "holocaust denial" are actually people who - after hearing about the disappearing 3 millions victims - wonder "Wait a minute... ever since the end WW2 it was believed that a) 4.2 million people died in Auschwitz alone, and b) 6 million jews died during the holocaust in total, many (if not most) of them in Auschwitz. But if the estimate of 4.2 million people who died in Auschwitz was actually 3 million or 300% too high - mustn't the estimate of 6 million jews who died in the holocaust also be corrected down? Why didn't this number change?" There may be a good explanation for this, but since this sensible topic is never being reported or explained in german media - how should they even know? I can easily understand why this makes some people suspicious. Whom can they turn to with their doubts and questions, if such questions are never even addressed in the official media?



padib said:
Lafiel said:

you can't let demagogues run rampant under the banner of "freedom of speech", a lot of people are easy to entice by "simple messages and answers" these people provide in the form of scapegoats

and that conspiracy theory this youtube channel is crafting is a total joke

A lot of people aren´t enticed though.

It's important to allow ideas to be shared within healthy and respectful dialogue to allow the best ideas and most reasonable ideas to naturally make it to the top. To say that ideas shouldn't be expressed because people can too easily be enticed is based on fear and lack of trust in human reason, as well as free will.

Industries are programming our children and teens and adults with messages of sex and power, yet nobody is revolting against it. The downward trend is really easy to spot over a span of many years, but one year at a time it's very pernicious.

However if people are expressing ideas in open debate, I am not sure why that could be a dangerous thing. It would not be done in the dark, rather freedom of speech would enable the ideas to be shared out in the open, for everyone to judge and analyse.


There are fine lines to everything. There is no absolute freedom, be it speech or any other type of freedom.



 

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Be careful padib. Don't let the French government see this thread.



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padib said:
IFireflyl said:

There are fine lines to everything. There is no absolute freedom, be it speech or any other type of freedom.

Try to read what I'm saying. I understood your idea, you've said it before. What I'm saying is different. If ideas are spoken out in public, these demagogues that Lafiel highlighted would have less reason to exist, their ideas being exposed for the analysis of everyone.

Please try to address what I'm saying, not what you want to say to any post I write, if that's not too much to ask.


You started this thread, but this is the internet, and this thread doesn't belong to you. You can't dictate how I respond to you. I will respond how I like.

There has to be restriction on what can be said/done. There's always going to be someone touting the "Freedom of Speech" line. I hear what you're saying. You're not saying anything different. I'm just saying that there are going to be restrictions, and it is difficult to tell where the line is in a lot of cases. Everything can't be aired out in public. That causes chaos, confusion, panic, etc.



 

padib said:

The whole idea of freedom of speech is based on the trust that people will not simply speak out of emotion.

I can't censor you and I have no desire to, but I reserve the right to tell you when I think you're just responding out of emotion and not actually reading what I write, especially when you parrot the same ideas despite my dealing with new aspects and replying to the concerns of other users.

Therefore what you are doing is what I consider harmful. You are not putting thought into our debate, rather just speaking to antagonize or bully a different idea out of debate. I hope you understand what I mean.

If a demagogue exists, no law can change that because people can say what they want behind closed doors. I'm advocating for opening the doors so that ideas can naturally be under the filter of reason and logic, being challenged by opposing ideas. Light begets light, not confusion.

 

IFireflyl said:

You started this thread, but this is the internet, and this thread doesn't belong to you. You can't dictate how I respond to you. I will respond how I like.

There has to be restriction on what can be said/done otherwise. There's always going to be someone touting the "Freedom of Speech" line. I hear what you're saying. You're not saying anything different. I'm just saying that there are going to be restrictions, and it is difficult to tell where the line is in a lot of cases. Everything can't be aired out in public. That causes chaos, confusion, panic, etc.

 

padib said:

You are not putting thought into our debate, rather just speaking to antagonize or bully a different idea out of debate.

As you can see, you are wrong. I specifically addressed what you said. I can't help it if you won't read what I said. There is a lot that should not be aired out in public. There isn't absolute freedom anywhere, and it's because the people that would do bad with it, while possibly in the minority, would wreak havoc. People are not inately good. We're selfish, judgmental, prideful, etc. Look at any child. Children don't grow up to be polite on their own. Children are disciplined. I don't say that in a negative way. There is a right way, and a wrong way, to discipline. Children grow up taking other people's toys, not wanting to share, wanting all of the attention, getting jealous, and so much more. We have to teach them the right way to behave. Left to their own vices children would be tyrants. What you're saying is that everyone should be able to talk about anything they want, and as long as it isn't behind closed doors it's okay. I say that is wishful thinking. If we lived in a perfect world, we could do that. We live in an imperfect world.

padib said:

You are not putting thought into our debate, rather just speaking to antagonize or bully a different idea out of debate.

I fail to see where a disagreement is bullying or antagonizing. I said nothing mean, or hurtful. I just didn't agree with you.



 

Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences. As long as people can call out stupid ideas and work to better the world freedom of speech works. We should be able to criticize governments, institutions, and even people. The founding fathers of the US said that phrases like fire in a crowded theater isn't protected and that I understand. But limiting freedoms to protect feelings or "enhance security" is preposterous.



padib said:

Children are children though. Adults are people who should be trusted to be able to think for themselves, not dictated by some overarching power as to what to think. Our reason alone should be enough to help us come to the most sensible conclusions. I agree that children need direction, they are not completely conscious and reasonable until only a later age. So we agree on that.

However, once in the world of adults, my philosophy is based on the ideal that people are able to think rationally. Do you really believe that kind of philosophy is wishful thinking? If so, then Martin Luther King Jr. was wrong because he asked people to think for themselves. Most revolutionists who made an important difference asked the same thing. Tyrants demanded the opposite, that people not think for themselves.


To answer this question, yes. Yes I do. Do I think we should be able to do that? Yes. I just don't think that we can. My reasoning is that history shows that bad people do bad things. Words and actions can be harmful. To a (I might even say 'very') small extent I think what is said needs to be regulated. The people that would abuse what you're saying may be in the minority, but it is easier to prevent/deter something bad from happening (in the context of rules/regulations/etc) than it is to clean up the mess afterwards. Take slavery for example. If there had been laws in place that said slavery is illegal in the first place then the U.S. wouldn't have had slavery. They had slavery though. Guess what? The black community still remembers that. Have you heard about the Ferguson, MO riots that recently happened? Granted, freedom and freedom of speech are two different things, but it is the same principle. There were no laws against slavery. When someone said publicly, "Let's have slaves," did people band together and throw that idea out the window? No. People got on board with it. The rest is history, but I think I've made my point. I like your ideals. I just don't think humanity is grown up enough to handle that.