The Myth of Dangerous Ideas
In his 1644 pamphlet titled Areopagitica, John Milton pointed out that knowledge can ONLY advance by means of free speech, written and spoken.
Moreover, in order to get to the truth of any complex thing that we don’t yet fully understand, it is NECESSARY to contend with error.
Indeed, one can’t even recognize an erroneous proposition unless one is allowed to talk about it with other people and debate its merits and defects.
Some of my Substack readers have occasionally asked me to censor reader comments that are rude, ugly, and false.
The only time I have ever censored a reader comment or blocked a commentator is when I have suspected that the commentator is an agent provocateur who is trying to give the impression that our readership consists of bigoted people.
Why don’t I censor false, inflammatory, or hateful comments? Because I believe that any reasonable adult who reads our Substack can judge such comments for himself.
I don’t need to protect my readers from any comments.
They are free to discuss, debate, or simply ignore such comments.
The Censorship-Industrial Complex is based on the myth that adult citizens must be protected from erroneous ideas.
Censorship has become the central project of what Thomas Sowell called “the Anointed”— that is, the self-appointed guardians of American society and politics.
The people who now work for this project are half-educated and stupid at best.
Most of them are working in the service of aspiring tyrants who wish to expunge the US Constitution from the world.
See more here substack.com
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So true!
A teacher once told me that one day, enemies of freedom will grow so bold they will openly try to undermine the Bill of Rights. “If you don’t want to lose your free speech rights,” he said ” you must resolve to defend the same rights of those with whom you disagree most. ” He went on to explain that it’s okay to dispute an opinion, but to deny one’s right to state state opinion is like setting an inescapable snare for yourself, then stepping into it.
Turns out he was a real visionary.
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