is free speech dead now?

[vivariumvivariumsvivaria]

Could a comedian make a joke about sex now? Have all jokes got to be inoffensive to all people now?

Can we make speeches about women's rights without committing a hate crime?

Is free speech dead?

[GreenJumpers]

The left have given the concept of free speech away to the right. Free speech has become a dirty concept. It's my main value though

[Dicotyledon]

Free speech was always a wobbly concept in the UK. It is fairly recent and I suspect this was aided in part by looking at what people were free to say in the USA and wanting none of that.

[TehBewilderness]

Not dead, just socially unacceptable at the moment.

[NotAGirl]

I think you're find comedians are still able to make offensive jokes about women. Even being shocking offensive about the Queen wasn't enough to cancel Frankie Boyle

[NotAGirl]

You'll not you're [sigh]

[NotTerfNorCis]

Back in the early nineties people used to joke about 'political correctness', how you weren't allowed to say certain things on the radio and councils were coming up with daft euphemisms to avoid offending people. And how once-respectable words were being replaced, then replaced again when the stigma caught up with the new word. I think that's the origins of what we're seeing now, but social media has put a rocket under it.

[RedToothBrush]

My lecturer taught me 'beware the censors' because of their power and that whilst it was tempting to us young 'leftie' students 'wanting to improve the world' we should be mindful of how it could be used against you.

That was 20 years ago.

It stayed with me. I remember the lecture and where I was sat vividly still.

[TheRealMcKenna]

RedToothBrush

I remember the days when ‘young lefties’ would sneer at Tipper Gore and the PMRC.

Oh how the tables have turned. Right wing conservatives are now the defenders of free speech.

[SetYourselfOnFire]

It pains me that right wingers were absolutely right that this would happen. I didn't see it coming. 15 years ago the left agreed with me and I haven't changed -- they have.

[Goosefoot]

I remember when political correctness was first being taked about on the right as a problem, the left seemed to have two responses. One was to say, yes, if this went too far it could be a problem but of course that would never happen. The second was along the lines of "PC just means being respectful to other people, it really costs nothing to be polite".

I remember trying to say to a few people that the term itself came out of the Soviet system, and that it was a real thing, and given that it happened there it could easily enough happen again. For some reason that never seemed to rate.

I find myself continually shocked now by the way younger people - even ones only 10 years younger than me - seem to totally accept this kind of authoritarian control of thought and language as a good thing.

[Davodia]

Never mind free speech - even free thought is dead now. It used to be the case that you could have your own opinions as long as you abided by the law in terms of your behaviour. But now the thought police are everywhere and you aren’t even allowed to think something they say is wrong. If they get even a hint that your beliefs differ from theirs, they will try to destroy your entire life.

[OhHolyJesus]

We still have to but we are going to have to hold on tight so it isn't snatched away.

Hate crime laws in Scotland as well as how it is applied in the U.K. could impact it but I do think/hope that this govt will keep some sense. I'm not sure that would happen if Labour were in power.

Maya's appeal and Fair Cop's are important. And Kate Scottow's.