Does free speech come with a side of irony? [View all]

[LiberatedUSA]

This is NOT a thread about “we need to change our free speech laws now”. This isn’t going to happen. Forget it.

This is a thought experiment.

Many other countries have limits on free speech; hate speech laws. Of course the fear on hate speech laws, is that it becomes an open-ended definition (those in charge know it when they see it and add it to the list for their own purposes).

Does free speech have an ironic dark twist that allows the seeds to be sown, many many decades in advance, that will always or likely ultimately lead to a country’s collapse? In other words, does free speech ultimately guarantee eventually a segment of society will be able to snowball problems because they can say what they want?

Or is it a combination of free speech and technology? In other words, half of the disaster recipe is free speech and the other is instant communication. Combine the two and over time it always snowballs?

For instance, Canada has hate speech laws, as well as many European counties. Can they avoid having a Fox News similar rightwing takeover based solely on limiting what can be said publicly?

Again, I am not advocating anything here, I happen to like our Constitution and our 1st Amendment. This is simply a discussion on how the United States became so politically damaged and if our shining star of the 1st Amendment might have ironically played a part in it. And if so, does that mean a civilization’s best chances, when they reach wide spread instant communication, is to put limits on what can be said publicly to stop things, such as The Big Lie, from gaining ground and causing disfunction in government?