“I disapprove of what you say, but will defend t the death
your right to say it.”
This is probably one of Voltaire’s most renowned quotes,
probably because it is so accurate today. Many people today are questioning how
far the freedom of speech should span. The skepticism doesn’t go without merit,
we have a president who uses twitter as a platform to accuse a fellow leader of
being a “little rocket man,” we have people who preach and swear by hate, and
we have people giving their opinions on all of it.
These things are concerning, scary, and to some people, irritating,
so why would Voltaire go out of his way to stand by our right to say it? I
think it is because, without people being able to expose their opinions in the
public sphere, a society cannot choose what it wants to stand by on its own,
therein forming a genuine movement. If you take into account Trump’s tweeting
habits, and everything that that implies, there is one redeeming fact of the
tweets, that the majority of society would unite over the fact that we do not
want a leader who tweets hate, and poorly worded hate at that. With that
knowledge, progress is possible in knowing what we do not want in our future.
So, why would Voltaire advocate so much for freedom of
speech, other than sparing himself some jail time? Because he was a
progressive, and for progress to occur, people have to hear one another out.
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