Free Speech In Society

In a piece in the New York Times, (Enforcing Manners, Tumblr Shuts Down 5 Blogs) Robert Mackey details the recent actions of Tumblr, a microblogging platform, which has shut down 5 Tumblelogs that were critical or downright negative toward other members of that publishing community.

This freedom of speech business makes for an interesting quandary, and one that I personally debate often. Should we allow freedom of speech to those who choose to use that freedom in a solely negative manner? Should we allow the KKK, Neo-Nazis, ignorant religions, and Ann Coulter the right to spread their infectious, anti-social drivel? I think that the knee-jerk answer to that is that we should selectively censor, especially when confronted with such notorious examples as the ones above.

However, the issue requires much more than a simple gut reaction. After all, censorship — in any degree, invites increasing censorship, potentially with questionable and wavering standards.

I’m glad to live in the United States, where my freedom of speech is relatively protected, as opposed to Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Vietnam, where I could be jailed for expressing my beliefs.

Still, I with there was some fair way to bar those hateful souls (Ann Coulter, et al.) from making their views heard. Alas, I think that’s a dream that will never come true.

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