Answers to 12 Bad Anti-Free Speech Arguments: Featuring That XKCD Cartoon Everyone Likes to Quote! - Areo

Answers to 12 Bad Anti-Free Speech Arguments: Featuring That XKCD Cartoon Everyone Likes to Quote! - Areo
"In a recent episode of her podcast, Iona Italia expressed frustration about bad arguments against freedom of speech that she’s had to combat over and over again.
I am therefore submitting something that is less of an article and more of a listicle: responses to some of the most common arguments against freedom of speech, and, where possible, suggestions for additional reading.

• Assertion: Free speech was created under the false notion that words and violence are distinct, but we now know that certain speech is more akin to violence.
• Answer: Speech equals violence isn’t a new idea. It’s a very old—and very bad—idea.

On campus, I often run into people—not only students, but professors—who seem to think they’re the first to notice that the speech/violence distinction is a social construct...
...Read more here: “Why It’s a Bad Idea to Tell Students Words Are Violence,” by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Atlantic.

• Assertion: Free speech rests on the faulty notion that words are harmless.
• Answer: No, it doesn’t. If free speech was not powerful there would be no need either to protect it OR to ban it. It’s not surprising that free speech can be harsh, since it’s meant as a replacement for actual violence!

Historically, freedom of speech has been justified as part of a system for resolving disputes without resort to actual violence. 

Acceptance of freedom of speech is a way to live with genuine conflict among points of view (which has always existed) without resorting to coercive force....Read all!