THE ENLIGHTENMENT: Why Freedom of Speech Matters

By YouveBeenGreeked | Some Random Thoughts. | 29 Jan 2025

I have way too many thoughts in a day, often about random nonsense, so I thought it best to just get them out of my cluttered brain and onto paper... or a screen, rather, and see if people care to comment on them or not.

Because sometimes, mate, boredom takes you places.

Anyways, Freedom.

BTW if I'm terribly wrong about anything, just tell me nicely - I'm just typing as I go.

The reason the US Constitution's FIRST Amendment is the Freedom of Speech/Expression is because they deemed that freedom the most important, and the one that should be protected the most.

Yes, this means that their second amendment - the right to own guns - is their second most important amendment.

Now, it's not because the US specifically did it this way that I'm talking about this - it just makes sense to me to protect that right above all else.

And not just the right to your speech, but everyone elses.

Yes, even people you strongly disagree with - their speech needs protecting just as much. Even the "crazy" people.

Yes, even the "offensive" people.

And like with most things in life, I'm gonna pull evidence out of my arse to hopefully back my case up that Freedom of Expression is the most important right in the multiverse.

And again like with most things, I'm gonna refer to history to do so. Because that's my brain in a nutshell.

My evidence: The European Enlightenment.

(Tangent, but I'll say it: this clothing fashion is better than 99% of fashions from today. Fight me. And the music was 110% better. Objectively.)

In short, the European Age of Enlightenment took place in the 17th and 18th centuries. It emerged as a period of unprecedented progress of liberty, toleration and politics, overlapping slightly with the preceding European Scientific Revolution.

The reason it emerged at the time it did is a multi-faceted subject, but primarily, I believe it to have come from the Thirty Years' War. Or rather, the ending of the Thirty Years' War.

This was a conflict which, from 1618 to 1648, saw anywhere up to 8 million souls massacred across Central and Northern Europe, simply due to the division of the western Church into Catholic and Protestant, following the reformations of Martin Luther. (The war's causes are far more complex, but in a single sentence I think that's kind of fair enough.)

It was very much the world war of its day - that is, nearly everyone was involved, everyone had the most advanced weaponry of the time, and mass graves were abundant by the end of it.

And it essentially arose from the fact that people think differently, and expressing these differing opinions often gets people into trouble.

Any by "people" in this case I mean 8 million of them, and by "trouble" I mean dead. Hell, parts of Germany - then the "Holy" "Roman" "Empire" - even reported population declines of 50% in some regions - in short, this was a very brutal war, and by the end of it, all sides of the conflict thought the same thing.

Look at this war... mental.

So, in 1648, the war ended, primarily for one reason: living side by side with people you disagree with is infinitely preferable and better than each of you thinking you're correct at all costs. Yes, even when the ever-touchy subject of religion comes to play, it's probably best to just accept that people are different around the world - and indeed people right next to you are very different - and just get on with your own life.

Better still, the Enlightenment: this came to be directly as a result of the ideas of several Europeans coming together instead of fighting, and working towards sharing ideas and criticising their own... which is exactly what happens when you're an early modern European power who's humble enough to be open-minded to your Catholic / Protestant neighbours's differing ideas.

Hell, it's why cultural appropriation is a great idea. In fact, it's not just not racist, it's anti-racist; it's having an open mind - on both sides - to be open to the possibility that one group of people might do something, even just one thing, better than "your people" do.

Wikipedia says Cultural Appropriation is "inappropriate", worse when "unacknowledged" or worse when done by a "dominant culture". I deem this, simply, crap, and so long as no harm comes out of appropriating, it's something we should strive for.

Like good GOD, look at this Japanese depiction of Jesus - the creators must've been Jew-gassing, orange-man liking racists!

And no, this isn't an advocation for open borders just because I'm saying that we should all just try and get along - I'd still very much like to know that people coming into this part of the world aren't crazed, axe-wielding, drugged-up, kiddy-fiddling lunatics, hence I like good borders... makes a map satisfying too. It's the same reason I lock my front door at night. Like yes, I could just be helping out a homeless bloke for the night, but I don't know, so he's not coming in. Sue me.

Anyway, this is simply an advocation for hearing others out, moving forward in life based on rationalism, trial and error, and evidence, and generally just not thinking you're "da best" just because your guns shoot better, because you're louder, or because your fist goes through the air towards your neighbour's face in a more death-wielding manner.

Who knows - ya might learn something from that person at work that you can't stand.

Like me: I generally am against abortions and transgenderism, but I also understand that some underaged girls get raped, but that it's still a living baby from conception, and that transitioning does help some people, while also understanding that most trans people are almost brainwashed into it, or do it to garner attention.

In short, this short phrase from 1772:

If there is something you know, communicate it.
If there is something you don't know, search for it.

Lesson: life's never black or white, even in the extreme cases.

Understand this, hear out the opinions of others no matter how bat-shit they seem at first, let people say what they want even if they're wrong and/or offensive, brush off what you can't control more, and I think you'll have a better life...

... a better life in your head for now, at least - the economy's shit innit?

Ciao.