Wednesday, October 20, 2021

On Free Expression, Free Societies and Laws

We're dealing with so much Dark Free Speech these days that I thought it might be productive to rant on the topic of free speech, and the nature of freedom, and what makes us free.


I'd argue that "free speech" enshrined as a right, the way it is in the US particularly, is pretty problematic.

I have a hard time with the liberal idea of (near absolute) freedom of expression.

It's too easy for bad actors, like fascists to poison the institution with what Germaine has coined "Dark Free Speech" - the kind of vax misinformation, and politically violent brinksmanship we see coming out of the talking heads today.

In The Torah, there are a set of laws which outline a way for someone who is not Jewish to lead a "righteous life" - that is, to play in the street of life and dodge most of the traffic. There are only like 7 of them and they're all pretty easy to follow.

The most difficult might be the most important for social stability: Establish laws, courts and a system of justice.

Absolute free speech is lawlessness. That's what happened to GETTR and Parler. That's what's happening offline as well.

The opposite of the law is not freedom - it is lawlessness - it's own kind of bondage. The rules set us free. That's why we have them. They elevate us.


Humans are self-domesticating, but not automatically so. Right now a great number of us are undomesticating or going "feral" human.


The laws, our social contracts, and belief systems domesticate and civilize us. We aren't born that way.


I like to say everyone's an anarchist at birth, some of us just don't grow out of it. I say that as an anarchist, although not of the infantile variety I just alluded to, at least not since childhood. My anarchism allows for rules, it's simply that the rules flow from the bottom up rather than top down.


Everyone needs rules if they are to live a reasonably satisfying life. It's part of being human.


If we wanted to free our speech, we'd protect it, by explicitly ruling out bad behavior.


People that are concerned about censorship need to understand that we censor every day, all over the place, and that this too is one of the conditions of civility and civilization. 


Online forums are moderated, and nobody loses their shirt. Canada and much of western Europe have laws against many kinds of Dark Free Speech, and if anything, those countries are arguably freer than we are.


Rules are important.

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