We're living in a culture of fear and as a
result freedom of speech is under threat.
When people feel afraid to say what's
on their mind no matter how,
decently they put their positions
there's a problem.
When people think questioning is violence 
there's a problem.
Because as soon as we say something
is hatred we stop listening,
it's a tool to direct the conversation 
where we want it to go,
where we are comfortable with.
We need to be able to discern between
things that we find uncomfortable,
and things that are hateful
and we can only do that,
with some intellectual humility,
with actually engaging with ideas,
and trying to see where
people are coming from.
So within political discourse there's
a lot of one-upmanship,
people don't want to be honest
people want to be right.
And this really obstructs anything
constructive happening within discussion.
We are now living for our online
avatars and our brands,
more than we are caring
about human beings.
We see people first through like a brand
image more than we see them
for the complexity and
fullness of their lives.
If we act as though disagreement
is an affront to our belief system,
we are limiting our own world views for
our own comfort and for our own egos.
We need to be challenged otherwise
we assume that we know everything,
and there is nothing else to
be said on something and
I would say that's the height
of intellectual arrogance.
We should be able to withstand critique
to withstand disagreement,
we should also know that not all
disagreement is rooted
in some nefarious intentions sometimes
that's the way people learn it's curiosity.
To engaged comprehensively in political
discourse is quite a privilege,
it does take a certain education it does
mean that you've read certain books,
this isn't something that everybody
has access to or is exposed to.
So when we are denigrating people,
criticising people, vilifying people,
abusing people for what they
don't know it's very tone-deaf,
and it really suggests that you're
not thinking about the people,
that you purport to care about.
Because if you were thinking about the
people that you claim to care about,
you would know that everyone is at
different stages of consciousness,
of political consciousness.
To vilify those people before they've even 
had a chance to start is disheartening,
creates resentment and ultimately can
create people being attracted towards,
more nefarious movements.
Leaving free speech to
the right is destructive,
and it's counter to all our aims.
We negate how much people
want to be heard,
how much people
want to contribute,
and if we're not allowing people to
contribute because we are arrogant
enough to think that only we hold the
truth we are pushing people away,
we're fracturing our own bases
our own communities.
And again it's an intellectual arrogance.
Attacking people to get them to believe
what we believe is a very bad strategy.
When we attack something the opposite
response often happens,
because there is always going to
be people who think that thing
that you're attacking is completely
true and when that happens
they want to defend that and
so we end up unknowingly
making a lot of people that we
dislike even more popular.
When it comes to no platforming I
definitely understand the motivation,
it's a motivation that is well
intended because people care,
people are fearful of what could happen
when certain ideas are out in the public.
However, I don't necessarily
think no platforming,
for simply ideas that
we dislike is helpful
there's a difference between 
hateful ideas,
and ideas that make
us uncomfortable.
And I think we need to have
the intellectual decrement
to know the difference
between the two.
I don't think we should have the ability
to say absolutely anything we want,
because that would be to live in chaos,
however I think we should have,
a lot more scope for discussion
than we do now.
To limit free speech is only going to come
background to limit your free speech,
things that you believe are
offensive on your side,
can also be used
back against you.
A lot of people that we now
revere are the same people,
that we would tear down today.
A lot of revolutionary types and a lot of
people who have inspired great change,
and the people that influenced us today
a lot of them wouldn't be able to exist,
under these conditions because
we are completely unforgiving,
and completely divorced from
what it means to be a human.
In order for people to evolve
they have to make mistakes,
in order for people to sharpen their ideas
they have to have some bad ones.
We have to accept that
people make mistakes,
they're going to make mistakes
you make mistakes,
and you wouldn't want to be
judged by your worst moment.
The mainstream media is often afraid
to give a platform to a variety of voices,
that's why platforms like Double Down
News are really important to support.
We need to be able to have a diversity
of ideas, perspectives, as a result,
support Double Down News on Patreon
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