The “Freedom of Speech” Debacle

I get many different thoughts, opinions and debates in my Facebook feed, some I agree with and others I might not. Some subjects are more provocative than others and you’ll always see debates on these issues. However, a statement cropped up in my feed today that triggered this rant for reasons I will explain later. First though, let’s have a look at the statement in question. 

Now lets look at what exactly is ‘freedom of speech’.

Article 19 states: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. – United Nations Website http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

I have lots of opinions that some would disagree with, including this one. However, the UN’s article does not state mannerisms or limits to what you can say. Many people will hide behind their words if they are receiving outrage from what they said; often saying it’s their ‘freedom of speech’ as a scapegoat. People on the receiving end then say that ‘freedom of speech’ does not mean you can say offensive and derogatory things. It’s not a complicated matter, but ironically enough, people’s opinions on being able to have an opinion has skewed the notion of free speech almost to the point where we can longer say we have free speech in fear of offending someone.

So what’s the problem? Why should people get away with saying dehumanising things and get away with it under the guise of free speech? The reason is because it says in clear text that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression”. It does not say you can’t express racism or sexism. It does not say you can’t say derogatory things because of someone’s sexual orientation. It does not say you can’t oppose women’s rights. It’s pretty terrible isn’t it? So why doesn’t it do more to protect people from being subjected to some pretty nasty verbal torture? As soon as you start putting in rules about what you can’t say because it offends someone, where will we stop? It would read something like: “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression unless they are demeaning or offensive to someone based on their race, sex, gender…ect”. Sounds like a good idea, right? So why do people get protection only because of their race, sex or gender? People say nasty things about all sorts of people based on their poverty, political status or religion. Before long, we wouldn’t be able to say much about anything in order to ‘protect’ people. Protection through the loss of liberty leaves everyone silent.

I may be sounding like I want people to be allowed to bully and abuse, but really, I want to distinguish the difference between what is and is not allowed when it comes to freedom of speech. We have to stop talking about discrimination when we are talking about being offended. Freedom of speech only applies to verbal expression. Someone is NEVER allowed to cause any kind of physical harm, impede or discriminate against anyone based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Freedom of speech does give people the right to offend you, but the problem is that people take offence to all kinds of things. The reason why freedom of speech exists is because every action we do has the potential to offend someone. Even just being born might offend someone who believes the world is overpopulated. That’s how ridiculous the situation could get.

Now that we’ve discussed the difference between offending and discriminating against someone, let’s talk about how you can deal with someone who is being offensive with their ‘freedom of speech’. I’ve noticed some people have this mindset that someone who is being offensive is untouchable, because it’s their right to say their offensive things. In fact, it’s rather the opposite. You also are not allowed to cause any kind of physical harm, impede or discriminate against anyone because of their offensive opinions, but that doesn’t mean you can’t vocalise your opinions of them! There should be repercussions against people who have offensive or backwards opinions. When someone has opinions against people’s basic human rights, such as sexuality, they especially should face strong public backlash.

The point I’m trying to make here, is that ‘freedom of speech’ must be free for everyone. You can’t start adding rules, because then that’s not really freedom of speech is it? Yes, people are allowed to say horrible and offensive things about others, but that doesn’t mean people can’t fight back with their own opinions. In fact, I strongly believe that the only way to get rid of these offensive and oppressive opinions is to fight back and make a stand by expressing the opinions of those who are oppressed by them. An opinion for an opinion won’t leave the whole world blind.