Posted: Sep 04, 2019 11:56 am
The myth of the free speech crisis | World news | The Guardian
Interesting article. Here has been a creep of former unacceptable ideas into... popular? mainstream? discussion. By unacceptable I mean any ideas that would have formerly been a non-starter in any reasonable discussion. These ideas are, to use a great expression of a friend, given truck. I also think the criticism in the article given to Dawkins is fair. It’s been recognized for what it is here thankfully.
This inevitably expanded what was considered acceptable speech. The Overton window – the range of ideas deemed to be acceptable by the public – shifted as more views made their way from the peripheries to the centre of the conversation. Any objection to the airing of those views would be considered an attempt to curtail freedom of speech. Whenever I attempted to push back in my writing against what amounted to incitement against racial or religious minorities, my opponents fixated on the free speech argument, rather than the harmful ramifications of hate speech.
Interesting article. Here has been a creep of former unacceptable ideas into... popular? mainstream? discussion. By unacceptable I mean any ideas that would have formerly been a non-starter in any reasonable discussion. These ideas are, to use a great expression of a friend, given truck. I also think the criticism in the article given to Dawkins is fair. It’s been recognized for what it is here thankfully.