Is free speech a good thing?

Is free speech a good thing?

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How could giving people the right to say what they want ( as long as it isn't a direct threat to someones safety) be a bad thing?

Bad ideas can harm society.

the restriction of free speech is harmful to society

>Bad ideas can harm society.

Depends. Sometimes it is better to expose bad ideas in the open so they can be fully criticized and seen from what they really are, instead of festering under censorship and ignorant people thinking these ideas are suppressed because they're actually good.

No.

It allows for people to say hateful things and cause bad vibes. It is especially spreading Islamophobia as of late.

>Free speech is okay as long as I agree with it

Yes.
Thankfully I live in the most free speech friendly nation on Earth, the good old US of A/

Absolute free speech? No. Free speech should be carried out with responsibility.

>America
>free
Even Belorussians have more freedom than Americans.

Oh look, another Euro to vomit up anti American autism all over the thread.
At least I live in America, where I can call people niggers and deny the Holocaust on line and not get fined or thrown in jail.

Ah, the classic "if we ban bad things people will just do them anyway" libertarian argument.

Why do we even need laws, amirite?

Europeans have a much lower prison population per capita than Americans and police brutality here is barely existent. How do you explain this?

Not as many black people

Less blacks. That won't last for long at this rate, though.

They don't have the income inequality, massive amounts of jail populace, or drug problem that Europeans have.
I'm not sure what this has to do with free speech though, aside from the typical obsession Yuros have about us.

*us Americans
Woops.

It can be harmful because despite the ideal that good ideas and rationalism will trump over bad ideas and misinformation reality shows that this isn't the case. People will happily believe unsubstantiated and sometimes dangerous bullshit, and will just as happily ignore facts.

I still think it's worth the price personally but free speech definitely has drawbacks.

African Americans make only one third of the population, this explanation is not satisfactory.

>I'm not sure what this has to do with free speech though
It has something to do with freedom in general. Your lack of reading comprehension already shows that you're American, but thanks for letting me know.

>They don't have the income inequality, massive amounts of jail populace, or drug problem that Europeans have.
you are not making any sense

Good and bad ideas will always be present in society, but if you start limiting what people can say then you will make it harder to critique those bad ideas you want to protect society from.

You're one to talk about reading comprehension, considering you came into the thread sperging about about freedom when I specifically only mentioned our freedom of speech laws, which are indeed some of the strongest on Earth. I like to give ESL posters a pass for crappy English skills though.

And yet they make up 40% of the US prison population.

...

Even if you take only whites into account, the per capita population is on the same level like Russia.

>African Americans make only one third of the population
Blacks only make up around 13% of the US population, yet account for 40% of our prison population. Is that a good enough explanation?

I agree, but I'm just saying "letting people say whatever they want" isn't all roses. It's just better than the alternatives.

The problem with that is who decides what a bad idea is.

I prefer keeping free speech, and looking for the diamonds among the shit people commonly spew
Plus, open discourse on ideas is essential

>Thankfully I live in the most free speech friendly nation on Earth, the good old US of A/
lmao
youtube.com/watch?v=6bVa6jn4rpE

absolutely

we were talking about free speech

>someone gets removed for making a disturbance at a forum
>hurr u dont have freedom of speech xD

Nice strawman, faggot.