Hi fishy_fiz, I agree with the majority of what you say in your post, but then you went and shot yourself in the foot with the statement
"In short the needs/wants of the many are more important than the right to free speech.....".In posting this statement you have just elected to use the ability of free speech but what if the majority had decided that it didn't suit their
'needs/wants', by the virtue of your own statement then you shouldn't have been able to place your post to start with.
If you restrict the ability of even one individual or a minority to use free speech, no matter how much you disagree are insulted or find objectionable what those views are. Then as a society we would be saying that censorship is more important than free speech just because the
'needs/wants of the many' who are either too blind to see, or have chosen to ignore the harm and injustice this would cause to the few is more important.
A simple and perhaps the most obvious example of this would be the abhorrent and crazed views of a certain Adolf Hitler, he used the right of free speech and somehow managed to pursued a whole nation that the
'needs/wants' he expressed were more important and a whole nation blindly followed him.
So by your statement he was right and the right of free speech by others, the minority, in this case the Jews was wrong.
It may be an extreme example but sadly it's part of history and true, and only points out that the right to free speech whether it be an individual or minority far outweighs the
'needs/wants' of the many.
This thread has been a very good example of the right to free speech & censorship, it started of with me using free speech to make a minority viewpoint heard, and resulted in the person at whom I was expressing my viewpoint to ie: Argo, having the decency to respond and not being upset at my viewpoint or using the power he has to censor me. That on behalf of Argo shows the true meaning of how important free speech is in a civilized society.
(can I get back to some nonsense now...)
