Hello all!
It’s been a while, but I am glad to be talking with you again, especially on this Fourth of July, Independence Day. This is quite a day to reflect on what our country has been through in recent years, or even recent weeks, and also on where our country is headed now. It looks like many Americans are not optimistic about our future, no matter which side of the political aisle they are on.
Too bad not too many want to discuss how to make things better. Maybe there are people out there like that, and God bless them, but there’s so much tension and despisement going on, that it’s hard for either side to trust saying anything to someone who has opposing views.
The sad part about this is it cripples democracy. In order for democracy to work, everyone would need to listen to each other and pay attention to what each person has to say. Unfortunately, not too many are willing to listen and only want things to go their way.
Last summer, a Tennessee dad, named Justin Kanew, spoke at a local school board meeting defending mask mandates at his daughter’s school. The video of his speech went viral and his final words resonated so much, even now:
“If you only like democracy when it goes your way, you don't actually like democracy." - Justin Kanew
The same can be said about the famed quote by Noam Chomsky, the noted linguist, philosopher, essayist, and media critic. If you want freedom of speech, you’ve gotta have it for everyone, not just yourself. It’s funny how people, regardless of their political leanings, will fight to the end for their freedom of speech, but will also fight to the end to silence anyone who says things they disagree with. That can be said when it comes to some examples of cancel culture. While some who make racist and other bigoted comments should and need to be called out and experience the consequences of their words (freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequence), sometimes it gets a little out of hand. I’m sure many of us have social media posts we wrote 10+ years ago that we hope never resurface because if we do, we’re screwed.
The same goes for people who complain about being censored on some social media platforms, yet don’t have a problem telling their friends and family on social media to keep their beliefs to themselves. For example, during the pandemic, someone I went to school with back in the day posted on Facebook about how sick he was of all the political comments on Facebook and wished the platform would go back to where everyone shared personal updates instead. He then attacked people’s beliefs as “conspiracy theories”, though he did not specifically say which ones, and ended his post with “keep your political beliefs to yourself”. I’ve had a couple of students over the years who admitted to telling their friends, who had opposing political beliefs, the same thing. Not a big supporter of freedom of speech, are they?
Of course, freedom of speech comes with a lot of controversies, because it means allowing hate speech, disinformation, and flat-out lies. In fact, when Chomsky said his famous quote, it was during the Faurisson affair in France, when a professor was fired for saying gas chambers were not used during the Holocaust. Chomsky supported the professor out of his right to freedom of speech and expression. Naturally, Chomsky’s support caused massive controversy and even caused difficult relations between him and France, and it also stirred up controversy in the Jewish community. But the whole story as to why Chomsky supported the professor’s freedom of speech is complicated, as per this Tablet magazine article from 2018, which says “[Chomsky] took an abstract position for free speech, and nothing more, and he did not bother much with the affair”.
Freedom of speech can come with a lot of controversies, which is why it is not an excuse to shoot your mouth off or disregard the effects of your words. I’m sure most people are aware of the power of words and how our choice of words has an effect on anyone who hears/reads them. But there are always a few who abuse that right.
And of course, there’s the ongoing problem with social media platforms and whether or not they should allow freedom of speech or not (notice, it is usually right-leaning people saying that). That includes posts that spread conspiracy theories and/or misinformation that cause more problems than solve them. I discussed this in a post from early last year, just after the Jan. 6th Insurrection. Even more so, some people on social media are not willing to have discord with other people who think differently from them. It is rather scary how some are not willing to listen to anyone who disagrees or is even bothered by what they wrote. And then they play victim once they lose followers. Oh heck, you get people complaining about others disagreeing with their comments, saying they are being attacked for exercising their freedom of speech. I mean, how do they not realize if you post something online, people will respond to it? Even negatively? That’s the nature of the Internet, the nature of the human race!
It’s situations like that that show how deeply in trouble our democracy is. We can’t have any good discourse without being verbally attacked or even having our life threatened sometimes. We also can’t have any discourse if too many don’t understand what freedom of speech really is - and we really can’t have it if we don’t realize and practice freedom of speech for everyone.
Chomsky did something controversial when he said what he said. But he had a point. Same with that Tennessee dad.
You can’t support democracy and freedom of speech for your own sake. You have to support it for everyone, even those you strongly disagree with.
Now, what about speech that encourages hate and violence? We’ll go over that next time.
Important Articles and Links:
Journalism Matters: In late May, the Southern Baptist Church released a long list of pastors, deacons, and other church leaders who had abused about 700 church members over the course of 20 years, and pretty much got away with it until now. That list was revealed because of an investigation done by both the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News in February 2019. File this under the good journalism has done!
Journalism is Not a Crime: Last month, the bodies of British reporter, Dom Phillips, and a Brazilian Indigenous expert, Bruno Araújo Pereira, were found after having gone missing in the Amazon, near the borders of Peru and Colombia. Phillips had long been reporting on the Amazon and its Indigenous tribes for such outlets as The Guardian, the Financial Times, the New York Times, and was working on a book about the environment. The area where they were killed is considered lawless with illegal miners and loggers invading tribal territories and plundering the resources there. Just a reminder that journalism is not an easy job.
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I totally agree. I know one family where the parents are Trrump supporters and republicans while the adult children are Biden supporters and Democrats and they still love each other very much. But they talk to each other and are an exception.
Dear Megan, so so true, it seems that there is only one opinion that is shown in social media while any controversial views are cancelled or deemed far right extremist. While I am left leaning, and pro EU and open boarders, my boyfriend is a Trump supporter and pro Brexit. We have had many discussions about this and don't even agree on the Covid politics, but we love each other and listen to each other's thoughts and go into a discourse rather than saying that the other is wrong and should be quiet. I hardly see people on social media orvthe media who are of controversial political opinions since there seems no room for other convictions than our own. It seems that anyone who has not on vogue views is a bad person or deemed stupid and/or dangerous.