Quote:
Originally Posted by Jzyehoshua  Your right to freedom of speech should stop where the other person's reasonable right to not hear filthy or vulgar language should start.
What you speak in public should be considered affecting that right and therefore there should be limits placed on insulting and vulgar language which shouldn't be used, especially around small children. |
Hi there.
On the basis of my own experiences of lack of freedom of speech, I have to say that I don't agree with your contention.
Firstly, the inability to express oneself freely results in ill-health in all sorts of different ways. Take the first verse of William Blake's poem A Poison Tree:
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
He understood the implications of not expressing oneself freely - in this case, of expressing anger.
Secondly, you assume that when one speaks openly in public, what one says could damage the other person if they find it offensive. No. Only if the other person lets it. If one takes offence at what others are saying, then one puts oneself in a prison of one's own making.
Let's take teasing. People who tease others - who do so by making supposedly 'offensive' remarks to another person - only do so because the other person reacts. If the tease doesn't get a reaction, then they get bored and stop making their so-called offensive remarks. The way to deal with teases is to rise above the teasing and NOT to take offense. If you don't, then as I say, one faces a miserable future of being vulnerable to any tease who comes along. It is therefore vitally important to distance oneself emotionally from 'offensive' remarks and to simply rise above them.
So I therefore suggest that it's not about 'rights' and 'wrongs', but about what is healthy and unhealthy behaviour. Lack of freedom to express oneself builds up all sorts of problems and damages one's health. Freedom of speech does the opposite.