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by IGI-111 2905 days ago
It is a core tenet of Liberalism (in the actual sense of the word) that yes, free speech does mean that you have a right for your ideas to be engaged.

Moreover people like Mill or Popper would argue people have a duty to engage every idea, because that's how the open society works.

The reduction of free speech to the first amendment and to State censorship is a modern american barbarism that is as absurd as it is baseless in either its historical roots or its application by any free judiciary, including the American one.

Telling people to shut up because their ideas are unpopular is and always will be illiberal.

1 comments

People have a right to be illiberal, liberal, and everything in between. People have a right to hew to the thinking of Mill and Popper, or ignore it. That’s also an aspect of freedom of thought, and consequent expression. You’re also free not to like it, and I’m free not to care.
Certainly. But free speech is an inherently liberal position by definition, construction and history.

You're free to think that it's all bunk and tyranny of the majority is just fine. Many people do.

I'd just like it to be clear to everyone that such an opinion is being against free speech. Because what greatly annoys me is when people try to claim that they advocate a "reasonable" version of free speech when they simply oppose it. Or indeed try to claim that their censorious position is a liberal one.

Which I am not at all accusing you of incidentally.

My perception (and apparently that of those asked in the survey) is that conservative opinion gets a disproportionate amount of "I just flag it and move on" treatment.

I would wager a large sum of money that if left-wing opinion were treated in the same way there would be much whining about minority rights and the importance of an individual's free speech from the left.

Thank you someone for giving me a downvote :)