So let's start there. There is no such thing as free speech. Are you okay with this? I'm torn. Sometimes I think free speech should mean the freedom to say anything. Freedom to say anything doesn't mean freedom from consequences, though... it just means the government can't oppress you and you aren't supposed to be fired and such... but then, go tell your boss to fuck himself and see if you can't be fired for that free speech. I bet you can.
The thing about limiting any form of free speech is that we need to be 100% certain that we've peaked as a culture, solved every single problem, got everything completely perfect, and anyone who disagrees with it isn't just wrong, but pathological. Because without challenges, arguments, disagreements, and bickering, we can not make any more progress - we're stuck with what we have.
We often hear about people who "fought for our freedom", focusing on heroics and sacrifice, or (ironically) used to silence criticism, but few really think about what should be taken from that pithy phrase... I mean
really think...
It meant that the people in charge were very wrong, and were willing to incarcerate, torture, or kill to maintain the system that the people were living under. It meant that some people were in such pain and misery that they were willing to give up their lives rather than continue to live them. Failure or success was a secondary objective after just making it all stop.
Most people on this forum can relate to that last point.
This very forum is targeted by powerful people, and the existence of this forum - and us - is cited as a reason that people end their lives. It is determined to be a form of "hate speech". Those people? Governments, or those with an axe to grind. Could they invest in proper mental health services? Might they put in proper social safety nets? Could they stop with the "useless, feckless, scroungers who need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps" rhetoric (arguably a form of hate speech itself)?
Absolutely!
But it's more convenient, cheaper, easier, and socially acceptable to simply denounce places like this, or quote the Samaritans' absurd "guidelines" and shut people down who want to talk about suicide.
But if people could talk openly, if we could confront the powers that be and say - "If you don't like suicide, you need to do something about it, not just tell people to shut up and not kill themselves. You need to spend some money on us. You need to offer us true, open ended help that might extend over our entire lives. You need to take the stress out of the system we live in." - who knows? Some of us here certainly would have had a less troubled existence.
But... "hate speech"...
The problem with shutting it down, people can't talk about what they're going through or what's bothering them. Someone who sees immigrants getting housed while they're homeless, or who is isolated and lonely and lashes out, is dismissed as bigoted and hateful. They might be wrong, they might actually have a sliver of a point somewhere. But if we just silence them, only the speech will disappear. The anger, the rage, the hate and the misery will remain, unsolved and festering.
It's why I tend to think that all speech should be permitted.
