Freedom of Speech.
It's the most American thing right after Amendment "Tres" (that's Spanish for "three" if Donald Trump is reading this). The only thing quite as a American is Carl Jr's "American Hamburger" featuring a hot dog that sits on a grilled patty sitting on top of potato chips. If that doesn't spell out America to you, you probably shouldn't be here.
It's plain and simple. Well actually it isn't always.
Free speech teeters on a line between "Chill & No Chill" most of the time. Especially in an environment like Reddit, where anyone from anywhere can speak their minds with virtually no repercussions.
That being said, I have always been a strong proponent of prohibiting hateful or violence inciting speech (but how do you measure that?). After the current CEO, Ellen Pao was forced to resign management became a lot less lenient and brought down the hammer.
People will say the KKK has the right to say whatever they want as long as they legally book a venue or parade and don't actually commit any acts of violence. Legally, they are correct. I still think those people are idiots because the KKK has no place in our society. We are the world's most powerful nation for Christ's sake.
Then you have critics who are to extreme and any reference which could be interpreted as potentially racist or prejudiced. I'll give you an example.
African American basketball player breaks away for a dunk right after crossing over the defending point guard.
Friend 1: "Man they are so good these days"
Friend 2: "Black Athletes?"
Friend 1: "No... basketball players."
Granted, some people may have meant that the subject was 'black athletes,' I personally feel that too many people get caught up in the nitty gritty parts of conversations.
The Dilemma
So where do we draw the line? I have no f**king idea and I don't think anybody else does either. These things are decided on an organization by organization basis and I don't know where I stand.
I think we are sometimes too open when it comes to racist and hurtful speech, but I also think we tend to be way too politically correct. We want dialogue that is open because any restrictions will tend to keep some ideas and needed conversations out of the system, but where do we draw the line?
I think this ties back to the decision of trying to decide what is good for society as a whole, yet no one person or entity is really posed to make that decision.
There will always be people who say stupid things, myself one of them from time to time. I am not a particularly sensitive person so I tend to upset people. When I joke about sensitive topic it may be upsetting to others but in the end its just a coping mechanism in an attempt to make a situation less serious by bring humor into the mix. I like it and it helped keep my sanity in situations where most would let it engulf them.
ReplyDeleteEven if you mean well, you can't just satisfy all minds. Too often people interpret in the way they want to hear, and it's really difficult to be sensitive all the time.That's why "communication" is so important in all cultures and in almost every business class. The line is usually invisible or at least hard to detect.
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