How Bad Do You Want It?

Freedom of speech is everybody's goto excuse when they utter speech that some people do not like. Every time someone is discussing a sensitive issue that includes religion, race, money or nationality they are sure to follow it with "I am exercising my freedom of speech." How many of those people though are prepared to grant others that same freedom.

Adhering to the freedom of speech is tolerating other people's speech no matter how different it is from yours or perhaps more importantly no matter how much it offends you. Most people who take refuge behind that freedom when they are speaking would probably go insane when their foes do the same.

I am not just talking about public speaking or expressing yourself, rather I am referring to someone completely bashing everything you stand for and praising ideas you have loathed your entire life. For example lets say you are a devoted American Christian and one day walking by a public forum you witness a public speaker that is making a complete mockery of Christianity, insulting your lord, his struggle and dismissing the whole religion as a fairy tale, would you respond? Would you get angry and walk away? Would you approach and confront him? My guess is that a big percentage of devoted Christians would confront the speaker, maybe even violently.

That issue was highlighted a few years ago when a Danish newspaper printed a caricature about the Muslim prophet Mohammad and watched almost a hundred people die in worldwide protests. Muslim protesters set fires to Danish embassies in a number of Muslim countries and Muslim leaders issued death threats because of a caricature. Those events shed some light on why Freedom of Speech is generally not exercised in Muslim countries.

However, we can't bask in glow on this issue because we are not that far off when it comes to being crazed about sensitive topics. For example, we tolerate rappers talking about many issues that one would consider edgy in a violent, sexist and drug endorsing manner but when a rapper raps about terrorism we become outraged (http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/002430.html). Mind you that so much more Americans have died because of terrotorial rap and gang wars than Americans that died due to terrorism. How about that Muslim ACLU activist who was denied bording his plane because he was wearing a t-shirt with Arabic writing (later he won a quarter million dollars from the Airline company).

If we preach freedom then we should not be hypocrites and practice the opposite. No one said it is easy or mundane, but in order to have a completely free society which endorses freedom of speech we have to tolerate people who practice it no matter how much it offends us. Our first president once said "If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." It is amazing how many backward steps we have taken in 300 years.