I Was Wrong, I'm Confused

Shocking news, this just in: your average crypto brother is NOT all-knowing!! Yep, I've been known to be wrong on many, many occasions in my half century of existence in this dimension. One thing I am not however, is unwilling to change my mind if I'm shown to be wrong.

_{source: The Blue Diamond Gallery}

The ability to admit that you're wrong has never stricken me as something extraordinary or especially praiseworthy, or at least during my adult years; growing up I suffered the same type of pigheadedness seen in many adolescents and young adults. We all have this period of experimenting with challenging authorities, starting with one's own parents and teachers; maybe this is part of the mechanism of "letting go" of the nest and finding one's own way in life, I don't know, but my friends could convince me to go to the club instead of the bar, while my own father couldn't convince me of a simple truth, like "blood is thicker than water." I believe we all think back when we're older, and the older we get, the more truths we recognize in the words of those who had gone before us; that's another truth I had trouble believing, that some wisdom really does only come with years of life experience. This doesn't make age an absolute measure of wisdom, as some people simply experience more, go to more places, meet more and more diverse people, and so on. But I digress...

You're also never too old to learn new things,and I've just learned, or realized something new, and it has to do with the freedom of speech. In yesterday's post I ranted against upcoming fascism and the normalization of racism in relation to the demagoguery that's rampant in many western nations, the greatest and most powerful demagogue being "the leader of the free world, Donald Trump. I tried to argue, and failed in the eyes of some Trump supporters, that he, among others, is leading the way for the normalization of racism, white nationalism and white supremacy. I'm not going to debate if racism is an acceptable political position to have; it's not. That all humans must be treated as equal, regardless of their place of birth or color of their skin, is as obvious as 2 + 2 = 4. And I won't debate someone who's convinced that 2 + 2 = 5, not because I'm not able to prove it wrong, but because there's no point, it's a waste of time. Trump is clearly a racist and is therefore morally ill equipped to fulfill the role of president, of any nation.

That's not where I went wrong; my error lies in the realms of free speech. I've often defended Trumpists and right-wing opinion-makers for their right to express their opinion on any platform, as I have always had a deeply rooted belief, conviction even, that the right to freedom of expression is for everybody, and it's easy to defend that right for those you agree with; if you really believe in freedom of speech, you should be willing to defend that right for the ones you disagree with too. A democracy is, above all else, the political tool of conversation and negotiation; we listen to each others ideas and opinions first and weigh them against each other, and for this to work realistically ALL ideas and opinions need to be on the table. Freedom of speech really is in a way "the mother of all freedoms" because without it all other freedoms we've gained from the democratic process would never have been realized.

Also. to strengthen this conviction, I've always believed that suppressing certain ideas, even demonstrably dangerous ideas like racial supremacy, can only have the effect of them going underground; it won't make the ideas themselves disappear, just remove them from our view with the chance of being surprised with a far bigger movement than expected when they come out of the closet. So all things considered, I was pretty fundamentalist in my defense of free speech, and wrote angry posts when popular right-wingers got banned from social media platforms, like Sargon of Akkad and even Stephen Crowders ban made me angry.

But I missed something pretty important here, maybe you've already spotted it. If so, congratulations; you're a lot smarter than me :-) What I'm missing here is an old libertarian principle: my freedom ends when and where it interferes with yours. So obvious, and I missed it... But this does mean I'll have to change my opinion somewhat, and I'll try to explain why. What happens when you allow people on your platform to incite racial hatred, or promote homophobia? You've done your duty as a platform and allowed all opinions as you don't have any editorial function, you're just a free and open platform for anyone to express themselves on. What I forgot to consider, in my strong convictions of free speech, is that the marginalized minorities won't feel comfortable anymore to share on that platform. It's complicated and I don't want to confuse you or myself any more than strictly necessary but I have to add that freedom of speech can not exist without the recognition that feelings can always be hurt; expressing strong atheist opinions can insult or otherwise hurt deeply religious people, and in those cases all we can do is the best we can to try and understand from each other where we come from.

Things change however, when the hurting or insulting is done deliberately in a non professional space. What I mean is that for artistic reasons, like life comedy or films based on true or fabricated narratives, we should be able to insult each other. This has to be separated from a Stefan Molyneux who legitimizes the deliberate insulting of minorities and the open admission of being a white nationalist. This is the reason why laws against hate-speech exist. Freedom of speech is a great good, but it is not a right to deliberately insult, marginalize, hurt or humiliate others. No one liked the bullies at school, unless you were that bully. I haven't made an airtight argument here, of course; I could argue that the insulted snowflakes can start their own channel, website, Facebook page... But I believe that's missing the point and throws us right back where corporate interest want us; in our own bubbles eternally fighting each other for likes, upvotes and becoming more extremely tied to our convictions in the process. Like IRL, we have to coexist online also.

This does leave the danger of dangerous ideas, like the fascism that has gotten new faces in the form of modern right-wing populists, festering underground; there are no easy solutions here. But I do strongly believe that if there's any solution to be found, we can only find it together. So, for now at least (who knows when I learn or realize something that changes my opinion again...), I'll be less fundamentalist in my defense of free speech in the sense that the deliberate spreading of harmful racist and fascist ideology should be condemned, and that there's nothing wrong with having a preference for language that unites over language that divides. And context matters. Is it racist to say that white people on average have a higher IQ than black people? This is factually correct I believe. But when you deliberately omit the context that most people of color come from poorer socio-economic surroundings, giving them less access to education on average, and that this is reflected in said IQ scores, and that these scores in themselves say nothing about black people's inherent cognitive capabilities, then yes, it's racist. But I still want to hear what Crowder, Akkad and Molyneux have to say... Arghh!! It's so complicated...

If you've made it this far into this inconclusive gibberish without a conclusion, thank you for hanging on. I'd like to read your opinion, dear reader, even if I lack the time to respond in a timely fashion, I always read them with great interest. And you could help me with this topic of free speech, if it has to have limits at all, and where these limits are, and if there's a role for the corporate ruled government in this at all... Thank you.

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