The Issue With Censoring Free Speech

George Carlin 1937 to 2008

Who wins when we censor Free Speech? Are we beating the disruptive bullies? Are we taking down those who cause great harm to many? Or are we simply denying reality? The truth is that the wrong people win, when you censor how we express ourselves. The ones saying the worst things, will not stop, they will, however, adapt to the new rules. In some cases, the worst offenders will adapt faster than the people who are trying to say the right things. 

In other cases, we are censoring the right to discover who a person is, and if we like that person. The first people censored will be artists who express themselves through their artistry. The ability to freely express yourself is greatly important for two basic reasons, we all need freedom of expression to learn who we are, but also so those around you are able to discover for themselves, if they want to hear what you have to say. Not only do we all have freedom of expression, which allows us the right to use our expression to criticize another, but we also have the freedom to choose to ignore, those messages we do not wish to hear.

You may see no issue in silencing those who speak vile things, but not everyone saying vile things is vile, for starters. For every person who may not deserve their right to free speech, there is another who simply needs to be understood. Trying to understand something that makes you uncomfortable, is part of growing, it is part of life. Learning how to deal with those things, is also a great part of life. We may think we would be silencing the right people, but if we open the door to take away our right to freely express ourselves, what does that say for our other causes? We are fighting so hard for the right to live freely, and to be ourselves, it seems logical to try and find a way to make the world kinder, but in the end, it also makes us hypocrites. 

We all have the right to speak out against things we do not like, we all have the right to stand up and use free speech to fight back, but we have zero right to take away anyone's freedom of expression. Because, even if that person deserves to have it taken away, even if they are the horrible people we may think they are, what if we are wrong? And how long til our efforts are used against us? We can all be critics, but there is a dangerous precedent to set, by taking away free speech. For every asshole who cannot form a proper joke, there is a master like Carlin, who would be silenced in the process as well. 

So I will leave it to the master to better explain the larger issue with censoring speech.

George Carlin Doin it Again 1990