It’s not uncommon to hear people claiming America to be the best country on Earth. They often list dozens of reasons like technological innovation and ethnic diversity. Those are great and all, but one reason which really makes a difference as far as I’m concerned is the First Amendment. Freedom of speech, religion, press, and to protest. Join me in my attempt to break down why the first and the most important amendment of the United States Constitution plays such a vital role in making a nation great.

Never true freedom

I live in Finland, which is often considered a wonderful place to live in, which it is, but Finland will never be truly free. In theory, one has the right to speak freely, but if the speech can be considered offensive, one can get convicted in the court of law. According to Finnish law it’s illegal to “agitate against an ethnic group”, and it states:

“A person who makes available to the public or otherwise spreads among the public or keeps available for the public information, an expression of opinion or another message where a certain group is threatened, defamed or insulted on the basis of its race, skin colour, birth status, national or ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability or a comparable basis, shall be sentenced for ethnic agitation to a fine or to imprisonment for at most two years.”

Now, that’s problematic for multitude of reasons. Biggest being the fact that the law is so vague that it can be interpreted completely subjectively. Basically, expressing an opinion which may insult a group of people, be it religious, political or ethnic, you can get sentenced up to two years in prison on the basis of that. Granted, it’s rare that people actually get a prison sentence for alleged ‘hate speech’, but there has been a history of politicians and journalists getting charged with agitation against an ethnic group for criticizing Islam for example. As someone who appreciates freedom and western values, this is completely unacceptable.

This problem doesn’t exist in Finland alone. Earlier this year in Britain, a comedian was actually convicted of a ‘hate crime’ for teaching his girlfriend’s dog a Nazi salute. You can’t make compromises with freedom of speech. Either you have it or you don’t, there is no middle ground. When you set a precedent that it’s acceptable to convict a person for making a harmless off-color joke, I have to wonder, what can you say without a fear of conviction? Where does it stop? The answer is; It doesn’t, the gloves are off.

Necessary Evil

The problem with free speech, and the reason why groups such as Antifa disapprove of it, is that it also gives a right to speak to people you don’t like, and whose opinions and ideas you despise. It allows people to express their opinions no matter how disgusting and ignorant they are. Trust me, I don’t enjoy listening to a communist or a racist speak and talk about their deranged ideas, but I will defend their right to express them, because as I stated before, you can’t make compromises with free speech. Free speech has to be absolute and it has to be for everyone, regardless of what they stand for. That’s the nature of free speech.

I actually find it rather baffling when I see the so-called ‘anti-fascists’ protesting against free speech without even understanding the simple fact that if we had no freedom of speech or freedom to protest, they would all be rotting in a jail cell and they wouldn’t be able to express their ignorant opinions in the first place. Restricting and censoring speech is a fundamental part of fascism, the ideology they claim to resist. Maybe one day they will learn to understand the value of free speech and the fact that without free speech, there is no freedom at all.