Freedom Of Speech: The Consequences Of Freedom Of Speech

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We, as a society, have too much freedom of speech Jim C. Hines once said “Freedom of speech does not protect you from the consequences of saying stupid shit.” But what is freedom of speech? How can it be defined? Freedom of speech is the concept of the inherent human right to voice one 's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment. This "Speech" is not limited to public speaking and is generally taken to include other forms of expression. The right is preserved in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is granted formal recognition by the laws of most nations. This is clearly stated in article 19 of the pledge “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold…show more content…
Expressing one’s opinion allowed others to either discover that what they believed to be true was actually false, or that it would help solidify one’s opinion to be true. Mill argued that the more we know, the better off we are as a society. Over time, good ideas will become successful, and bad ideas will fail. This sounds like a pretty good idea at first, but then on second thought, should speech be regulated? What happens when freedom of speech harm’s others? This comes as a result of the society of today, the world we live in, where speech is free and opinions uncontrolled. It must be said that free speech is a human right, however it comes at a price, and that price is…show more content…
Is it every okay to inflict personal harm because it is “for the good of society”? While some forms of freedom of speech cause society to develop as a whole and acknowledge truths, other forms can be detrimental towards individuals. Mill addresses hate speech in On Liberty, which he refers to as harm principle. This principle, Mill claims, is the the only exception that restricts Freedom of Speech. However, when this topic was briefly reviewed in lecture on September 20, 2011, under the topic “Should harmful ideas be suppressed?” it was said that Mill’s theories claim: who decides what is harmful, and that harm itself should be up for debate. Because the topic of personal harm is debated, some forms of hate speech may be considered acceptable. Perhaps, certain forms may be allowed as long as they are not physically detrimental, however, mental harm still
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