What does freedom of speech mean?

Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the right of each individual in a society or community to articulate their thoughts, ideas, and opinions without fear of censorship, legal punishment, or retaliation.

However, the free speech amendment does not mean that one is free to say whatever they want in an attempt to harm other people. This is why our freedom to express ourselves is not absolute.

For instance, discrimination, hate speech, defamation, and making threats, to name a few, aren’t allowed, and are even punishable by law.

How political correctness and freedom of speech influence each other

Political correctness and freedom of speech do not often go hand in hand. That’s because they both desire different outcomes and thus, contrasting roads to achieve those results.

Free speech sometimes means voicing thoughts and sentiments that go against the grain. Political correctness, on the other hand, values conformity by preventing radical opinions and other forms of expression that are deemed inappropriate.

That’s exactly why political correctness and freedom of speech are frequently at odds with each other.

However, the right to voice one’s individual, personal thoughts and opinions means that we have the right to risk offending another person. As long as the comments remain within reason, of course.

But the lack of censorship is not absolute, and we must not misuse this freedom of expression to harm our peers intentionally, or to instigate others to commit violence or other improper activities against the law.

Advantages of freedom of speech

• Creates the foundation for a civilized debate

  One of the advantages of freedom of speech is that it creates a platform for civilized debates where we can voice our views and ideas respectfully to each other.

  Without it, people would not get the opportunity to voice their concerns and as a result, get oppressed eventually.

  If it weren’t a human right, then there’s a large possibility that our society would collapse sooner or later, and turn malevolent with just a few people taking all the power for themselves while oppressing the rest.

• It helps us to understand each other better

  

  We can’t understand each other if we’re not allowed, or too scared to voice what we are thinking.

  People differ in personality, thoughts, and thus, perspective. Yet, we must make an effort to comprehend each other as well as possible to prevent tension and violence as well as possible.

  This can only be accomplished if we’re daring, and willing to talk and debate with each other with an open mind, and without any prejudices.

• It allows us to improve society

  Multiple people thinking individually will always come up with more good, and novel ideas than only a couple of people can by attempting to make the rules.

  Working together has always been vital for our species’ survival. Combining our brainpower for the greater good of society has multiple practical benefits such as being capable of improving each other’s ideas, new perspectives, and speeding up the process.

• Freedom of speech protects the minority

  

  The minority has always had a hard time surviving. This is true not only for animals in the wild but for humans as well.

  Oftentimes, the minority ends up being assimilated, or cast away by the larger group. Power in numbers is a real thing indeed, albeit not always positively.

  Free speech promotes different kinds of thoughts and makes it, so even the minority can voice their opinions without having to fear the repercussions of the rest of the population.

• It allows different opinions, ideas, and thoughts

  It’s a fundamental right that allows for different kinds of ideas. This is especially useful and important in a large society because every individual is different.

  That’s why we must often seek to find a middle ground to live together peacefully. Trying to take into account each other’s feelings, viewpoints, and contrasting views.

  Yet, different perspectives are typically necessary to solve certain problems. Because a different approach is oftentimes needed rather than the thought processes that created the problems to solve these issues. No matter how unpopular those different ideas sometimes are, they’re still essential to fix things.

• Freedom of speech allows us to accommodate an ever-changing world

  

  Life is continuously changing. Technology keeps advancing, and health care keeps progressing, which means our lives also change rapidly, and we must adapt swiftly to not get left behind.

  Freedom of speech is a fundamental right that allows us to accommodate our ever-changing world as fast and efficiently as possible.

  Sticking our heads together will generate multiple ideas and novel, better thoughts faster than only a few individual minds can. That’s on average, though, and is still dependent and influenced by the intelligence of those singular minds compared to that of the collective.

Why is freedom of speech important?

Freedom of speech is important because it’s the foundation for a civilized society due to promoting polite debates, gaining a better understanding of each other, and protecting the minority.

This creates a cooperative environment that we can utilize to improve society as a result. That can’t be accomplished if we prevent others from speaking their mind because they would be unable to share their thoughts, and perhaps, good ideas.

Freedom of speech examples

Some possible examples of freedom of speech in the real world include:

1. Sharing our opinion on social media platforms and the internet
2. Through publishing books, articles, interviews
3. Sharing our thoughts through the radio broadcasts and television
4. By producing creative arts such as paintings, or songs