| EDIT: Notice I find OP's line of thinking "dangerous". My reaction is not to appeal to any authority and have anyone censor, ban, or de-platform them. I combat it with speech. I see this line of thinking extremely dangerous and misguided. > is very important... but it is also causing harm to the society Let me stop you right there. You can literally make this case about every noun ever. History is littered with a long list of do-gooders that tried to ban books, alcohol, some sort of human sexuality, gambling, and on and on. I believe this is roughly where the saying "The path to hell is paved with good intentions" comes from. In the United States, we believe in freedom. Freedom has the same properties that can lead to good or bad outcomes. People can choose good or bad. They can choose the right political candidate or the wrong candidate. They can believe what they want to believe. They can choose different paths that may lead to prosperity or to poverty. Censorship or banning things mostly don't work and banning it just because it can cause harm is not defensible. Censorship, especially, creates a large amount of harm itself by reducing trust in the government. Reminds me when I was a teenager and I asked for a hacking book for Christmas. My relative refused to get it for me because of the harm it could do. My response was that knowledge was neither good nor bad. It's what you decide to do with it. My argument was that that same knowledge of computer hacking, while can be used for bad or evil, can also be used for good or defense against those wishing to do harmful things. In the United States we have experience with alcohol and other drug prohibition, and it's been an absolute disaster. And the thinking about that is the same alarming attitude that is displayed here regarding free speech. The reason the United States has a 1st Amendment that prevents the government from restricting speech is because it's incredibly dangerous to allow anyone or any group to decide what speech is allowed. It may start out with good intentions, but is far too dangerous to even allow the beginnings of it to exist. |