RE: How Steem has altered my beliefs towards freedom of speech
I do not know much about anarchy or censorship or much of anything really but how I see it, freedom of speech comes with a reponsibility and acceptance of consequences. People seem to be under an assumption that what they say comes cost-free whereas I tend to see that there is freedom of response also.
The response however may not be what is expected or desirable as humans are complex creatures with a lot less critical thought and much more emotional reactions than most like to admit. This does not pose a threat to anarchy per se but, it may result in a lot more conflict than the idealistic would grant their view.
This means that in a perfect world, it would take a person with the maturity to understand that they must effectively self-censor in order to keep the peace, understand they will fail and be charitable to the continual failures of others attempting the same.
The other issue is of course when the freedom of speech is used to inflict harm upon others through the spread of low quality, unsubstantiated, non-emperical lies for personal gain.
Freedom of speech does not mean truth of speech, clarity of speech, ability to understand the speech or anything all high and mighty, it just means one is free to speak which in reality, already exists but, for some the consequence for speaking one's mind (true or not) is ultimate.
Perhaps as a species we are just not mature enough to manage autonomy as for the majority, authority offers a false security but a security they crave so taking a free-market approach scares the hell out of them. What if they aren't as intelligent, skilled, adaptable as they believe themselves to be? Does the market eat them?
Most will trade their freedoms for security without ever asking if security exists at all.
Apologies for the wall.
Freedom of speech is hard, and has many pitfalls, but it's the only way. Criminalising or repressing hate speech or lies is a short-sighted measure. Change can only happen through free speech, over generations. It's hard, but we'll get there.
The progress societies championing freedom of speech in the last fifty years has been incredible. There are
I am very hopeful that the level of maturity will continue to grow and not regress. Perhaps it is somewhat of a silo problem but I kind of feel a divide increasing again between various groups.
For me personally, I would rather know what someone has to say regardless of the validity of their position as it could simply be that they have not had access to better information. If we do not know each other's positions, how can we help improve them?