The end of free speech?

[Ori37]

We seem to be moving towards a culture of criticism which is so prevalent it's threatening to end freedom of speech and honest opinion. You can't post anything on Social Media without your comments being immediately perceived as purposefully hostile, and individuals are torn to shreds for the most innocuous things.

Jokes or light-hearted attempts at humour are taken literally. You only have to read a few threads on MN for examples. People are so busy troll-hunting they forget why they signed up in the first place.

Are people really so easily offended and quick to anger? If not, what is this new and emerging trend to attack and publicly denounce people who have no obvious malintent whatsoever? Where is the critical objectiveness, the desire for good, honest debate? It seems to have been replaced by the immediate desire to apportion blame for imagined insults.

What concerns me is the root cause for this hostile culture. People seem angry, and dissatisfied on a deep and collective level. There's an article in the news today about public figures who have signed an open letter denouncing the restriction of debate. It makes interesting reading.

Individuals can easily lose their jobs for saying something on Social Media that is taken the wrong way and wasn't meant to cause offence, academics and professionals are called into disciplinaries for quoting the wrong thing, places like MN which should be a safe space for a lot of parents to sound out their concerns and give advice are increasingly under threat by this hostile culture.

Whatever you say, however you say it, whoever you are, there will be someone who takes your comments personally, or reads bad intent where none was meant - despite the fact that in the majority of instances, it's blatantly clear that comments are innocent.

I'm all for a healthy, robust debate, and don't mind being disagreed with. But nowadays people forget the "debate" part and replace it with personal attacks, and things very quickly escalate into petty insults being flung. Original requests for help are ignored, the focus slips onto a perceived insult, hostile exchanges are undertaken, more individuals jump on the bandwagon and there it is, the demise of free speech.

AIBU to wonder where this will end up? What do you think? (No insults please! I'm not insulting anybody.)

Does anyone remember a couple of years ago an actor in one of the soaps put something on social media. He was of Pakistani origin and he was upset about what was happening in Kashmir. He said that Indian people don't care about what happens to Kashmiris and he used a few rude words.

Not only was he sacked from his job but the TV company didn't use any of the footage that had already had been shot with him in it. It was like he was airbrushed from the show. It's as if he was contaminated and couldn't be allowed on the screen for fear that he would contaminate the public.

I always thought that was unfair. Indians and Pakistanis are not different races, so in my opinion he wasn't being racist. He was upset about what was happening to his co-religionists which is understandable. At least he cared about what is happening not the usual trivial rubbish on social media.

I doubt it, if more likely that the intellectual and political elite that has taken an interest of a sort in what lower downs have to say will revert to disregarding them as a rule.