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Free speech. We all know it, we all love it. But is it really loved by all? Xi Jinping certainly doesn’t love it, with gamers under the age of 18 in China only being allowed to game for 3 hours during the weekend. Or Stalinist Russia, where you were killed for disagreeing with the government. In this group project we discuss from all angles free speech, its influence, and its consequences. We also discuss to what extent is speech free, with laws coming into place such as Bill C-16 in Canada which makes some phrases an illegal offence, and to what extent this curbs or increases our freedom of speech.
Do you think that future generations will understand the importance of free speech and if so could it lead to discussions about totalitarianism and democratic globalisation?
Do you think that our generation fully understands the meaning of free speech? Of how good we have it, yet we still push and scream for more? It’s hard to believe so when people these days get offended by anything they don’t like or don’t agree with, like it’s a crime to think your own thoughts and not conform to what’s cool or fashionable…
When thinking of free speech, it is clear we have it a lot better compared to many other places. However, do you think that the future of free speech could start to drastically descend if this idea of ‘Cancel Culture’ continues down the path it’s going?
To answer your second question, I would say that the idea of ‘cancel culture’ is mainly used for political reasons, examples being Critical Race Theory and the debate around transgender youths and hormone therapy. Because of this the very idea of ‘cancel culture’ is an overblown phenomena that is only used to rile people up about topics to get them to become distasteful of the opposing side, so in a way they may not support x, but instead just oppose y and in effect supports x. Therefore I would say that free speech will not be affected at the same speed as cancel culture due to the hype around it.