Freedom of Speech Includes the Freedom to Offend People- Brad Thor

A few hours back, I received a reply from the author of http://sandysview.wordpress.com/  for one of my tweets, he stated how his trait of sharing honest opinions often gets him into trouble.

His statement got me pondering upon why people, even the ones who claim and strive for freedom of speech take offense when an assertion is directed towards them. And why is it that the ones who speak out their true feelings towards a certain matter are usually disbanded from social circles.

A certain pattern regarding freedom of speech emerged in my head. I would like to mention my observations in a point form so its easier to follow, as sometimes I feel like I am the only one to whom my words make sense.

1. Some people possess a sense of superiority due to being appreciated by majorities, so they don’t accept that one person standing up and telling them other wise.

2.Some people possess a sense of superiority caused by whatever the reasons maybe. But, yet at the same time they may posses in them a sense of inferiority for certain traits they carry or circumstances they are in. So, when negative judgements are passed on especially a trait they believe is the reason for their superiority, it somewhat ruptures their self esteem, so acting out is somewhat of a defense mechanism.

Please note in the examples above I have assumed that both these groups support freedom of speech, I am not discussing the ones who completely deny the freedom of speech, its a whole other topic of discussion.

3. If I begin to analyze all the people I have met so far in my life, who believe and stand for freedom of speech , including myself to a certain degree take offense for a negative remark, of course how you choose to deal with it varies on your level of acceptance, self denial, ego, tolerance and several other factors.

4. So, how are we claiming freedom of speech when we don’t have the tolerance to either handle it if aimed at us, or even if it has nothing to do with us. For example :-  Last night a close friend of mine sent me a facebook link of some youtube sensation known as the “Queen of Vagina” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmfIZk07cvQ. In all honesty I was appalled and speechless to see this, I honestly didn’t get what she was trying to get through to people, if shes promoting sex, I couldn’t comprehend how this would be sexually enticing , but then again since I stand for freedom of speech , and if I feel its my right to share my thoughts and speak my mind, so I should accept that she is allowed to say whatever in the name of holy fly spaghetti she wants to. In turn I should tolerant enough to listen to her sexually explicit content and perhaps some how make peace with it.

And then another thought crossed my head, why is it that I found her music promoting sex and her vagina to be vulgar ,when one of my favorite songs which I can definitely say I will love for as long as I live Lucy in the sky with diamonds- The Beatles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqXmBy1_qOQ is claimed by swarms of people to be a description of an lsd trip or promotion of lsd, but to me its still a beautiful, trippy, dreamy masterpiece.

But why so, why is it that I am more comfortable with the idea of someone promoting psychedelic drugs but not entirely comfortable with this woman expressing her sexuality so freely.

Maybe the issue arises with the levels of subtlety, maybe one can get away with saying anything as long as it sounds subtle to others. Can subtlety be categorized as a form of hypocrisy where as at the same time I believe some one who is too blunt in expressing their inner most thoughts and observations is often regarded as insane.

This to me creates an odd bias within the freedom of expression spectrum , which in my opinion can be solved by practicing tolerance and at times tilting our perception inorder to understand why a certain remark was made.

So always feel free to share your thoughts but at the same time let others share their own voices whether they’re aimed at you or not.

-The Celestial Factory