Hmm. Although I tend to take a centist, moderate position on nearly everything, I find I am quite absolutist about various freedoms.
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In actions, it's clear that we cannot tolerate everything & have to draw lines, but I just can't see the same with ideas & beliefs
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Its not as though it even works. If you ban an idea or belief, they don't go away. They just go underground.
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But even if it did work, it leaves us v vulnerable to majority opinion abt what is harmful & hateful. In religious places, atheist views are
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Whereas if we were to impose a blanket ban on all speech which included hatred & justifying harm to a group, bible & Quran cld never be read
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Being absolutist on anything worries me but I just don't see an ethical way of compromising or limiting what ppl can think, believe, express
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And I don't think freedom of speech is the be all & end all.Discussing ideas themselves is more important. But we need to be able to do that
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So I'm concerned that I am a 'free speech warrior' but ultimately it is only one facet of secular, liberal democracy I fear losing.
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Freedom of speech arguably the most important right we have, as all our other freedoms depend on our right to argue our case.
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