2024-07-03
20 分钟“…in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he can scarce call any Thing else his own. Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech.” Silence Dogood, pseudonym of Benjamin Franklin, The New-England Courant, Number 49, 2-9 July 1722 Freedom of […]
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This channel is made possible by the support of our members in those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything else his own.
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
Freedom of speech was once one of the West's most cherished rights.
But in the modern day, governments are attempting to strip us of this right.
In almost all western nations, legislation is being introduced to thwart our ability to speak freely.
Politicians and bureaucrats justify this anti free speech stance in the name of the greater good.
They claim that with more control over what people say, fewer people will be led astray by misinformation and disinformation, and fewer people will be harmed by the criticism and insults of hate speech.
In this video, we make the case that censoring and criminalizing the expression of misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech is an existential threat to a free and prosperous society.
To suppress free speech is a double wrong, wrote the american philosopher Frederick Douglass.
It violates the right of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob him of his money.
In the west, there have long been limits on what can and cannot be said.
Property rights create one such limit.
A property owner can assert the authority of my house, my rules, and expel any individual from his or her premises who says something the property owner wishes not to hear.
The principles of common law, which are foundational to many western legal systems, also recognize speech which threatens the person or property of another, conspires toward the committing of a crime, or incites others to violence.
As requiring legal sanction.
Laws against defamation and false advertising place additional limits on speech.
The purpose of this video is not to argue against the value of these basic limits on our speech.