Freedom of speech isn't tolerated by some

[WhatNextBanana]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2025/09/10/charlie-kirks-shooting-terrible-moment-american-democracy/

Political violence on the rise.

People are getting angry when people have Political views they don't agree with. Freedom of speech must be allowed not shutdown.

Tragic news of a young family man shot by someone today. Please remember he was a human with a family. Violence is never ok.

You'd like that, wouldn't you? You maybe right. However, whatever piece of vermin shot his neck to pieces, will hopefully meet the death penalty.

Interestingly, an American man was interviewed who had been stood right at the front at the time of shooting. He referenced an English man who said something as long the lines of “ at least it will stop him talking” as that man said, it’s a world wide issue

Free speech is something generally agreed across the political spectrum as long as you believe in democracy. But the disagreement arises when considering if it should be an absolute right and always ‘trump’ all other rights or whether there should be any caveats to it where there are certain consequences arising from speech which clashes with other rights. Libel and slander legislation would be an example of this I think?

I personally don’t think we should be jailing folk for writing things on sm. I think the solution to it is unfortunately quite dry and boring and which would not get traction on tik tok in that we should be doing all we can to preserve the rule of law and democracy. The US seems to have gone quite far down the road of dismantling these things and we need to be very careful in the UK that we don’t do the same but I fear that we will.

Why would I like it? I've already said my fear is this will lead to more violence.

And I doubt the killer will face justice, I'm guessing they will quietly be disposed of.

It's never anyone else to blame, is it?

The irony of you talking about "misinformation" and then quoting Wiki 🙄 .

I've just checked there are no threads about Melissa Hortman being shot. It appears you didn't care enough to set one up but moan if someone sets a thread up about someone else.

There’s no point in spreading baseless stuff, it’s just more misinformation.

Well done @MNHQ for just deleting another dodgy thread. You must be working overtime.

Anyway I'm off. I suspect my time is better used on the supernatural adventure-but-really-just-an-excuse-to-write-hot-superpower-sex novel I'm partway through reading (though when the main characters lose their powers - and they will - I feel like their connection will lose all meaning because it'll all just be boring in comparison. Waiting to see how the author resolves that). It's exactly the type of thing that would have "out, Satan" yelled at me in church which makes it all the more fun.

Freedom of speech has never been tolerated by the Left.

Does freedom of speech just mean anyone can say anything they like? I mean, it does seem to be the case, especially on social media tbh.

Well I've just been informed by MN that I've been brought to their attention. Happy to have posts deleted if they have been reported. Over to them to deal with this shit show.

“It's a universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.”

CK struck me as someone making bank out of it, and unfortunately it went terribly wrong.

Same and most of the debates I saw of him, he constantly interrupted and talked over people, repeated himself when the other person was more experienced and knowledgeable than him because he didn’t get it and wouldn’t let them answer when they would elaborate. Seemed to me he was buffering like a bot at times when someone had a well-thought out and reasonable view as if he was struggling to compute what they said.

Just 'The Left'? Plenty of politicians on 'The Right' bang on about free speech, but then do things like banning news agencies from media briefings etc. Farage was taken to task just a short while ago for doing precisely this - shutting down reasoned, rational debate. The Right's attempt to paint themselves as innocent victims of some kind of tsunami of wokeness and cancel culture is pretty pitiful tbh.

The fact I was talking about was the fact that he was murdered in such a brutal way. Absolutely awful.

What now? The killer is to blame here. Obviously.

I hope they don't get the death penalty, but only because I am opposed to the death penalty in all cases. Two wrongs don't make a right.

It was discussed at length on the Trump threads.

Or the right. Extremism thrives on silencing people. But let's not pretend one side is better than the other.

couldn’t agree more ❤️

If you are not free to voice your thoughts, and listen to others voice theirs, you’ll never grow, progress, or learn.

When you stifle speech, you’re inhibiting the ability to think. You become an unquestioning robot, churning out the ‘correct’ opinions you’re required to have that involve no deeper thought or introspection or understanding on your part. Why do you believe the things you believe? Can you defend your positions, or is it because someone told you that those are the correct opinions to hold?

If you’re not free to speak, in what way are you a free human being? What makes a human being unique other than their mind?

So literally nothing is off the table? Incitement to rape, murder, sexually abuse children. Open discussion of paedophilia and how to go about it? All that is acceptable in the name of free speech?

Edit sp

Do you oversimplify everything? That's not what I said, is it?

Humans (as a whole) cannot be trusted with lethal weapons. The more lethal weapons there are in society the more opportunities there are for a wrong 'un to get hold of one and use it. So if you campaign for policies that permit the proliferation of lethal weapons you have made it easier for a nutter to get hold of one and use it.

Freedom of speech absolutists would say that yes, anyone should be able to say anything they like regardless of any consequences to anyone else, and that this is necessary for democracy. The other argument is that freedom of speech is a fundamental right in a democracy but it should be considered in relation to other rights. In the same way that we all have a fundamental right to liberty of movement, until we don’t because we’ve been robbing someone else’s house or whatever.