Freedom of Speech and Political Correctness

There is an old saying…Your right to freely swing your fist ….ends at my nose. Pretty clear cut, in principle, til the lawyers get hold of it.

There is another old saying that ‘takes it back’ even further…Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. It seems almost absurd in the context of the world we live in today, where we are deeply restricted by laws and basically living in a police state. But the saying is meant to convey, in part, that we a DO have perfect freedom. The only thing that restricts that freedom is…..consequences. You are free to do whatever you want, but you WILL face the consequences for your actions. Another way to put it….Karma, it is not a philosophy…it’s The Law. For every action there is a (not necessarily equal, in human affairs) reaction.

The position of Freedom of Speech is that you have the right to use any word any way you want to. That is absolutely true.

I have the freedom of speech to call you a huge flaming asshole for doing so.

That is a consequence of you exercising your freedom.

Then you defend yourself…then I attack your defense. Then you attack my attack, and I defend.  Etc. Etc. Etc. We have the Freedom of Speech to yell at each other all day long! But there are consequences. We are also “free” to punch each other in the nose, or “free” to pull out guns and shoot each other. But there will be consequences.

Freedom!!!

This is why political correctness started. The consequences for using your freedom of speech are mostly (aside from hate speech) social consequences. Iow, people yelling at you or shunning you. Yes we all have the freedom to say whatever we want, but the consequence for saying things that hurt other people is that people will say things back to hurt you. If enough people are hurt or offended by what you say you will have ALL those people trying to hurt you back. Or if you are lucky, trying to explain to you why what you are saying is hurtful. Like it or not, for good or ill, this is how societies define what is “acceptable speech.” By using their freedom of speech to “police” your freedom of speech. To make it politically (note: polite, police. Same root. Societies DO police themselves, through …politics, heh) correct. Or to use different words …(Since it has reached the point where the phrase “politically correct” is now an “attack phrase” in and of itself!)…socially acceptable. How is what is or is not socially acceptable determined?

Their is a constant pull of societal back and forth about what is “correct.” In the 80’s and 90’s, parts of society said that political correctness had gone to far. That it was infringing on freedom of speech. They used their freedom of speech to raise a hue and cry about freedom of speech. But the only thing that was limiting their freedom of speech was their resentment and hurt at others using their own freedom of speech to tell them that the use of their freedom of speech was not acceptable to them. Who wins that battle? How do they win it? What happens to the losers?

Nobody went to speech jail or thought jail. They were just ….shunned. Which is the tool all societies determine what is and what is not “correct” in the context of “polite” society. What are the consequences for using socially unacceptable language, whether no purpose or accidentally? Embarrassment. Hurt.

Which, coincidentally, are the same consequences suffered by those who are insulted or offended by politically incorrect speech. Except for one thing. Speech has been used to separate and classify non white, non male, non “straight” people into a lower class. If we want this to end, if we want equality, this habitual use of speech must end. It won’t be ended by those who have no vested interest in ending it. White straight males don’t know they are using hurtful language against non white straight males until they are told by non white straight males. Black straight males won’t know until non black straight males tell them. Latino straight females won’t know…etc, etc, etc.

Here is the problem: When you tell someone you are offended by their speech ….they get offended.

Again this is a constant flux. And it is completely emotional. It will not aways make sense for that reason. Why is it ok for back people to use the ‘N” word and not white people? Because it just fucking is. What is or is not socially acceptable? Their are no rules, no judge, no final word. It is an amorphous and confusing and hurtful process.

So what is the point of all of this? Why does it matter?

Because we are trying to build a better society, a better world. To build a new society together we have to show the minimal respect for each other to be able to work together. To do that we have to communicate. To communicate effectively we have to be able to NOT spend all of our time arguing about words. We have to instead….as with everything else in society….find ways of agreeing.

That is much harder! Sometimes it hurts!

But

We have that freedom too.