{"id":13271,"date":"2025-09-13T11:57:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T18:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/?p=13271"},"modified":"2025-09-13T12:31:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:31:19","slug":"free-speech-absolutism-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/09\/13\/free-speech-absolutism-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Speech Absolutism?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time was when leftists were latitudinarian to the point of extremism on the question of free speech. But of late a “sea change into something rich and strange” (Shakespeare,\u00a0The Tempest<\/em>) has occurred, the ‘trigger’ being the liberation of Twitter by Elon Musk and its rebranding as ‘X.’\u00a0 Leftists are now spooked by the specter of ‘free speech absolutism.’ And not only leftists, but certain of their pseudo-con fellow travelers such as the bootless Max Boot<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will now argue against free speech absolutism, and in so doing illustrate a responsible exercise of the moral, and also legal, right to free speech.<\/span><\/p>\n

To discuss the topic sensibly we need a definition.\u00a0 One thing it should do is to specify that the topic is\u00a0public<\/em>\u00a0expression, whether in speech or writing, not what occurs in private or in solitude. <\/span><\/p>\n

And let’s be clear that the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution protects speech against abridgment\u00a0 by the Federal government alone: “Congress<\/em> shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . . .” (emphasis added) You have no right to free speech in my home, which is my castle, or on this weblog, which is my cyber-castle. I, however, do have the right to evict you from my castles, whether physical or cybernetic. <\/span><\/p>\n

We also need to agree on what it means to say that a right is absolute. A right is absolute if and only if it is (i) inviolable (in the sense that it ought not be violated), (ii)\u00a0 exceptionless, and (iii) equal, i.e., the same for everyone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Free speech absolutism, then, is the view that everyone has the moral right to express publicly, whether in speech or in writing, whatever one wants to express, on any topic, anywhere, and before any audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is what I mean by free speech absolutism. (I also think that this is what everyone ought to mean by it.) Is that what you mean? There is no point in discussing this question or any question unless we agree on what exactly we are talking about.\u00a0 If you don’t agree with my definition than you ought to provide\u00a0and defend<\/em>\u00a0a different one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Note that if the right to free expression is absolute, then whatever anyone anywhere expresses publicly to anyone, whether true, false, meaningless,\u00a0incitive<\/a> of violence, etc., ought to be tolerated. This follows from the correlativity of rights and duties.\u00a0 \u00a0If the right to free expression is absolute, then the duty to tolerate is absolute and therefore exceptionless and the same for all. But then we get toleration extremism, a position defended by J. S. Mill which I demolish in a Substack article<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Free speech and open inquiry must be defended, but no intelligent and morally sane person could support free speech absolutism. For the inciting of violence cannot be condoned. And that is just one example of intolerable speech. The speech-suppressive Left aided and abetted by cranky neo-cons such as the bootless Boot have created a bogeyman.<\/span><\/p>\n

Terry Wilson’s inciting of violence<\/a> at a Charlie Kirk vigil is therefore not protected speech.\u00a0 And then there is “Kerosene Maxine” Waters and her incendiary remarks . . . .<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time was when leftists were latitudinarian to the point of extremism on the question of free speech. But of late a “sea change into something rich and strange” (Shakespeare,\u00a0The Tempest) has occurred, the ‘trigger’ being the liberation of Twitter by Elon Musk and its rebranding as ‘X.’\u00a0 Leftists are now spooked by the specter of … Continue reading “Free Speech Absolutism?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13271"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13275,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13271\/revisions\/13275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}