Please Offend Me

You have the right to say what you like

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I’m a classic liberal. That means I believe in the rights of all individuals. This includes the right to free speech. But what does that really mean?

It means that everyone has the right to express themselves.

• Even if the speech is not “proper”
• Even if the speech offends people
• Even if the speech is inaccurate, incorrect, or wrong
• Even if the speech is politically incorrect
• Even if the speech is hurtful
• Even if the speech seems immoral or mean-spirited

There is a reason the First Amendment is the first one. It protects people that many find unacceptable. But who gets to judge?

Once upon a time, those who spoke out against slavery were ostracized. Once upon time those who spoke against child labor or for the rights of women were ostracized. In the incipient environmental movement, many were mocked and degraded.

So sometimes those who were shunned were eventually proven to be on the right side of history. What would have happened if we’d muzzled them?

Of course, not all free speech is what a decent person would consider good.