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There's nothing inevitable about freedom of speech. China is 4000 years old, and they still don't have it. It WAS hard fought for. Speaking and thinking are the
by chrisco255 6y ago
There's nothing inevitable about freedom of speech. China is 4000 years old, and they still don't have it. It WAS hard fought for. Speaking and thinking are the same thing. A society that cannot speak without fear of censorship is one that cannot think. It cannot ask difficult questions. It cannot speak truth to power. It is as much a cultural value as a legal one. It should be promoted and celebrated.
- chillacy 6y agoPromoted, celebrated, and continued to be fought for. If you tautologically define "freedom of speech" as the compromise we have in the US, then that's true that we "have freedom of speech", but if you think at an objective measure of absolute freedom of speech (which would include any combination of words you could say, including what we would call libel, hate speech, copyright infringement, etc), then freedom of speech doesn't really exist anywhere. There are just variations of restricted speech, some more than others, but also some different than others.