Freedom of Speech

The class discussion we had on freedom of speech today was intriguing.

From my own experiences in the past as well as from talking to friends and family members, I have noticed that in classes involving general debate or argument (english, history, etc.), a heavy bias is pushed towards one side of the argument with a lack of tolerance or even recognition for the other side. The "other side" oftentimes tends to be my side and it can be difficult to share that.

Certain views sound terrible when first presented (ex: we need to lower the minimum wage), but there is legitimate logic behind views like these. I don't want to "make people poor", but without discussing the rationale behind my view it may seem like this to some people. This isn't what happened in my case, but I have seen it happen to other people in other classes with other topics and it isn't right. Automatically shooting down certain statements without explanation isn't lack of tolerance, it's blatant censorship disguised as lack of tolerance. Not being open to understanding or respectfully discussing it is hurtful to the class environment as well as the student with said opinion.

In high school, I read 1984 by George Orwell and it was eye opening to me how comparisons from that book can be drawn to today. Obviously not to the same extent as in the book, but in school as well as society in general, one view tends to be pushed fairly often and those who don't agree are "cancelled". We need to realize that just because the majority doesn't agree with a view doesn't mean it's automatically invalid or not worthy of being explained.

Freedom of speech isn't free until lack of tolerance doesn't become an excuse for censorship in general discussion.

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