Free Speech is an Illusion.

[mojo]

Is there such a thing as Free Speech?
If there is, is it really Free?

Protestors scream "Free Speech is a basic human right."

Wrong.

No matter who you are or where you live, you will either believe that you have Free Speech, you are fighting for Free Speech or you wish to censor Free Speech.

www.thefreedictionary.com (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/free+speech)


free speech
n.
The right to express any opinion in public without censorship or restraint by the government


But isn't that definition rather basic, what does real Free Speech mean?
What is the point of being free to express an opinion in public if no one is there to hear it.
Free Speech comes with many rules attached, see below.

Check any dictionary for their definitions, they are all basically the same.

www.answers.com (http://www.answers.com/topic/freedom-of-speech)


, legal systems have not treated freedom of speech as absolute. Among the more obvious restrictions on the freedom to say just what one likes where one likes are laws regulating incitement, sedition, defamation, slander and libel, blasphemy, the expression of racial hatred, and conspiracy. The liberal tradition has generally defended freedom of the sort of speech which does not violate others' rights or lead to predictable and avoidable harm, but it has been fierce in that defence because a free interchange of ideas is seen as an essential ingredient of democracy and resistance to tyranny, and as an important agent of improvement. The distinction between an action falling under the description of speech and one which does not is not clear cut, because many non-verbal actions can be seen as making a statement—for example, burning a flag or destroying a symbol. Again, valued freedom of speech embraces publication—writing, broadcasting, distributing recordings—as well as oral delivery of ideas.
— Andrew Reeve


It's my contention that there is no such thing as Free Speech, it is only Censorship that exists in varying degree's.
True Free Speech is nothing but an ideal, a flowery and eloquent device of governments and institutions
to give you the illusion of freedom.

Free Speech, in the truest sense, has absolutely no chance at all of existing now or in the future, it is a Utopian daydream.

Sure you can fight and argue and cry for Freedom of Speech and rail against the tyrannical leaders of the world that promise it but never deliver, don't be surprised that it is so elusive and ever out of reach, for that is how it shall always be.

For every freedom you believe you have, i can show you a freedom you don't have, it is an illusion.




mojo.

[Yo Mama]

Well, I like to look at it as people's rights come with responsibilities, and their rights end where someone else's begin.

You're right to a degree, but if you look at places like China and North Korea, we do have free speech. Fred Phelps is still around -- look what a monstrous piece of shit he is. But we do allow for mostly free speech in this country at least, and as lunatic and distasteful he is, he is still allowed to speak his mind. So far, anyway.

[Occam]

GN is correct. A problem with all of these one to six word labels such as "Free Speech" is that, while they are dramatic and easy to understand, they can lead the unsophisticated to simplistic ideas. The concepts behind them are complex and always conditional.

If you want to reduce it to an even more absurd argument, you could claim that speech can't be free because it costs you something in the energy to speak.

We have to recognize that the freedom to express our opinions is always relative, however, each society sets different limits. The limits in the U.S. are pretty wide; the limits in countries ruled by their dominant religion are much more narrow as are those whose governments have much more obvious power and even less control by the citizenry.

In addition, as members of a society, we are expected to observe responsibility and self-restraint to avoid harming others, and this is a further limit on our speech.

Occam

[mojo]

Thats varying degree's of censorship, not free speech imo.



Australia also prides itself on our democracy and free speech, yet we wouldn't allow a holocaust denier to speak here.
I didn't want to go and listen to the guy, but i'm sure there were some that would.
The same people that got up in arms about this guy coming to Australia are the first ones to whinge and moan about the government infringing their rights to free speech when they are protesting against the G8 summit or CHOGM.

[Yo Mama]

Sounds like the "me me me now now now" cult of PC ness has finally made it over there.

Congratulations. It sucks.

[theeindiee]

If you wanna make it a philosophical debate....

I believe that every thought we have isn't spontaneous at all... that everything has already happened in an instant, yet we're following one facet of that existence... So we're following a pre-determined course, set by chaotic events that happened somewhere at some point, and it's like a movie.... only we're so caught up in the movie that we actually think WE ARE the mover and not just the observer. It's hard to tell, when you don't know the true origin of your thoughts, to get caught up in them... but are they really yours that you are creating spontaneously, or have your thoughts already been pre-determined, too?

If that's the case, nothing is truly free. It's all doing exactly as it should, and it WILL NOT deviate course.... at least not from anything humans think they can do to change it.

Freedom to do exactly as time unfolds.

[Martian Exile]

Free speech is the right to shoot a Fed in the back with a 44 Mag wheel gun.

[mojo]

or have your thoughts already been pre-determined, too?





by the very act of living and experiencing, then yes, i believe all thought is pre-determined.

so is it then free thought?

[Lexion]

It is, at AmKon.

[mojo]

It is, at AmKon.

not completely.

otherwise spoiler tags would not be required.

but its about as close as ive seen on an internet forum.

[Lexion]

but its about as close as it gets on an internet forum.

fixt


:D

[mojo]

hah!

[Cogburn]

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The rest is allowed for interpretation by design.