Wednesday 11 November 2015

Write Down Wednesday; Freedumb of Speech

Have you ever watched something so crass for comfort and still watched it just because the act has the right to do it. Well yep you are looking at (reading this) from a man who has been watching a lot of Doug Stanhope shows on YouTube and some of the things he says are utterly foul but you've got to take the rough with the smooth, most his jokes are great but some border tasteless. Its a good test of faith in the western world, that you watch it because you can. I don't say that I do this for everything but when you consider that if you said some of his set in other parts of this world, he would be killed, jailed or in more liberal places protested against.

We all have the right to an opinion and we should all have the right to say that opinion. Some people's are opinions are part of there act, if comedy, for example, you should take everything with a pinch of salt. And even if you still take it with a pinch of salt and you are offended, express that opinion. As well as the right to say your opinion, you have the right to be offended. Instead of everything just being safe. The parameters of safe are flexible, depending on the person so its much easier to have it other way round.

Censorship of people deemed offensive is foolish because it causes more problems. Censoring all appearances of Anjem Choudary, is just going to flare up tensions between the radicals and liberals. Have an open debate with him as a true vehicle of democracy, and let people choose which side they are on. It is not illegal (or shouldn't be) to have a certain opinion because only if the person who holds those beliefs acts on them; by killing, that is illegal. So believing ISIS are right, is not a problem, to me. But killing members of "the west" is.

The clue is in the name; freedom of "Speech".

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