“I have a right to my opinion!”
“Excuse me, I thought this was a free country!”
“What about freedom of speech?”
You may have heard or seen these arguments or some variation
on them when you have witnessed or been a part of a disagreement. I feel that
it is especially prevalent online, so let me explain a few things. Outside of
libel if you’re writing, slander if you’re speaking, revealing classified info
if you have access to it, threatening someone’s life, screaming “Bomb!” in an
airport, and a few other special cases, you do indeed have the right to say
and/or write whatever you desire without intervention from the government. That
last bit is key. Freedom of speech and expression is not, nor should it be,
freedom from others expressing their disagreement with you. It is also not
Freedom from Facts. You can believe the earth is flat. You can spout off about
it, quote the “scientist” who wrote a book about it, and post links from the
Flat Earth Society, but you will still be wrong, and people will tell you that
you are. They are not infringing on your
right to free speech by exercising their own.
Like many rights, it
comes with consequences. If you are posting on Facebook, for instance, you need
to abide by their terms of service, or your content can be removed. In extreme
cases, your account can be terminated. This bit of information happens to be
true all over the internet, and is also likely true of your contract with your
ISP. You can say what you like, but if you don’t abide by the rules, which you
have agreed to follow, you can lose your services. The government isn’t
shutting down your Facebook account because you posted your Hustler spread. Facebook is because you
violated their TOS. Whether one agrees with the restrictions and enforcements
of the terms of service of various websites and ISPs is a different topic. In addition, some people’s opinions of you may
change after you explain why you believe the earth is flat. As a matter of
fact, some people may not even like you anymore. It is not an infringement on
your rights, but it is a consequence of your actions. To put it another way,
you can smoke, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t get cancer.
Also, to paraphrase pretty much every speech from the Voice
of Reason to a Superhero, with great power comes great responsibility. The
freedom to say and believe what you want is power. It is one that much of the
rest of the world doesn’t have. Don’t believe me? Ask a Syrian. When you are
not responsible with that power, you can do terrible, hurtful things. At best,
when you just say things to say them, without expressing your thoughts civilly,
with no desire to check for inaccuracies or logical fallacies, and without
making sure that you are not needlessly hurting someone (sometimes the truth
hurts, but it is necessary to tell it for the Greater Good, in keeping with the
Superhero theme of this paragraph), you look like an idiot. At worst, you
become a Supervillain of the information age, spreading lies and inaccurate information,
engaging in ad hominem attacks, treating the slippery slope argument as if it
were a god, rather than a smokescreen, and just generally contributing to the
serious lack of civil discourse we are experiencing in this country. When
someone finally stands up, takes off his or her glasses, puts on the spandex, very
politely but pointedly makes known all the inaccuracies, and states the truth,
the Supervillain retreats behind free speech, attempting to hide behind the
mantle he or she has just sullied. In the end, the Supervillain is a coward who
yells, “I thought this was a free country!” rather than actually respond to
anything that could challenge him or her. Those lines should be reserved for
times when there is an actual abuse of power, like the infamous pepper spraying
of the college students. They are not to be used when someone merely disagrees
with you.
All that being said, I love comments, and I do hope people
will comment on my blog when they feel compelled to do so; however, if I feel
that what is being said is not respectful to me, other commenters, or anyone
else, I reserve the right to delete your comments. Those are MY terms of
service, in addition to the Blogger TOS. If you possess it, you can take your
vitriol someplace else.
"Also, to paraphrase pretty much every speech from the Voice of Reason to a Superhero, with great power comes great responsibility."
ReplyDeleteI think we may have been sharing a brain, because I recently made that exact reference when discussing the recent Rush Limbaugh-calling-Sandra Fluke-a-slut incident. I had signed, and posted on Facebook, a petition that Rush be cancelled, something I was overjoyed to have had the chance to do, when just a few years back, Rush had so much power that Republican leaders kept having to apologize to him every time they implied he was anything less than Fearless Leader. However, one of my more libertarian friends said she considered that censorship, slippery slope, etc. (yeah, okay, I realize that's a pretty inept summary of an opposing argument). But...that petition doesn't ask that Rush be arrested by the government. It simply states that he has proven himself unfit to hold a public platform.
Admittedly, at the time I was just really, really offended by Rush's comments -- not only were they blatantly idiotic, hurtful and wrong, but I personally consider "slut" to be a far more offensive word than many that are bleeped on primetime television. But when I started thinking about it, I realized there was another layer to this: millions of people take Rush seriously. Obviously, most of them are otherwise sane. But every group that large has its nutjobs, and it is entirely too easy for me to imagine one of Rush's more unhinged followers sending Sandra Fluke hate mail or even death threats. He wields enough power to have put her life in danger with his words, and while I know there have been no reports that this happened, the point is that it could have done, and that is abuse of power.
I love that we have both used the same reference recently. You'd think we were politically like-minded and related or something. Hey, wait a minute. . .
ReplyDeleteRush has been a major offender in the categories I write about above for so long, I really didn't think he'd ever face any consequences for his actions. I am so glad to see advertisers pulling support from his show. Finally. You are 100% correct; it isn't censorship. It's a bottom line. He can say what he wants and not be arrested, but he can't live without consequences forever. The advertisers aren't saying that he can't say that. They are saying that since he did, and has shown no real contrition or remorse, that they don't want to be associated w/ someone who speaks that way b/c there are a lot of angry people who won't buy the products of people who align themselves with someone who is acting like a hateful bully. Notice I did not say he *was* a hateful bully, just that he was acting like one. *bats eyes innocently*
I was saying something similar just the other day. People were complaining about Doonesbury, using your exact quote "What happened to free speech?" because some papers were opting not to run the current abortion strip. I've seen a few and they are genius, hilarious, but if xyz paper doesn't want to run them, then Garry Trudeau hasn't lost his 1st Amendment rights. Those papers aren't agents of the government, they have a right to express themselves by publishing/or not publishing entertainment/editorial pieces. Funny twist concerning "rights" - all these folks who are publishing the abortion strips online are actually violating the rights of Mr. Trudeau and or the companies he has contracts with. By freely distributing his work, they're violating copyright laws. I doubt anyone is going to get sued, hopefully they're savvy enough to see this violation as a net win in terms of the exposure of the strip.
ReplyDeleteBut it's funny, the people going YAY over Rush being abandoned by sponsors and stations and possibly losing his show altogether are the same ones screaming "censorship" over Doonesbury. If Limbaugh or Trudeau are tossed in the slammer, then we need to worry. But I'm guessing you already know that :)
I think comparing and contrasting the Rush and Trudeau situations is perfect, Jason. You also make some interesting observation about copyright laws and free speech.
ReplyDeleteI obviously totally agree w/ your last two lines. :)