Have any of you ever been in a debate club? Or seen any form of debate on television?
All of the debaters have freedom of speech to say whatever they want to defend their point. However, do you normally just see them say “it’s my right!”. Probably not. That doesn’t cut it for professional debates, whether it’s a high school debating competition or a group of politicians on national television.
The fact that you have the right to say something, does not mean it is right and that no one is allowed to criticize you for what you say. In essence, freedom of speech just means you can’t be thrown in jail for your opinion. I have been over this before.
Additionally, people tend to think that if you criticize their thoughts or opinions, you are criticizing their right to an opinion. If someone says 2+2=5 and I say that’s wrong or if I ask the person to explain why they think that, my statement is not an attack on their freedom of speech or “free thought”.
Kanye’s latest idiotic statement, about 400 years of slavery sounding “like a choice” has attracted the usual “free speech” or “free thought” advocates. All of the arguments supporting Kanye, that I have come across so far, do not actually engage with what he said. They just use the crutch of freedom of speech to defend themselves.
There seemed to be one exception I found on Twitter so far:
“He’s making the point that we were mentally and physically slaves”.
Now, this comment ignores the long history of revolts and rebellions that contradict the belief that black people as a whole just accepted their situation.
So, I tell this guy that and he says “read my next tweet.”
Fair enough.
Sigh.
Back to the “free speech” argument. We can’t shame or “cancel the nigga” because of his opinion.
The next thing that bothers me is that this guy, and others of his ilk, are acting like Kanye is getting hate for saying he doesn’t like pineapple on pizza. Kanye put a historical theory forward.
I could say that I think the Earth was created by two giant turtles fighting one another, and I wonder if people would jump to my defence and talk about my bravery or “free thought” if I said that. Historical theories need to be backed up by some semblance of fact. It makes no sense to put a theory like Kanye’s forward and then fall back on “free thought”. Facts do matter. Free speech and facts can work together.
My favourite part of the exchange with this guy is his response to my next tweet.
For someone with decent reading comprehension, I think we would see that @j0shdst was defending Kanye’s comment by appealing to the “free speech” argument. Yet Josh either isn’t smart enough to pick up on that or realizes he needs to backtrack.
An eloquent and witty retort.
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