'Freedom of speech’ has long functioned as a kind of shibboleth in Western politics.

It defines who we are and is regularly invoked as a sacred right that covers and even condones a multitude of rhetorical sins under the mantra, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion”.

The conditions of our rhetorical ‘free market’ have produced a shocking regression to political ideas that were, not that long ago, thought ‘irrational’ and even ‘unthinkable’ and the reactions to these ideas have become increasingly angry, divisive, publically demeaning and non-conciliatory. We are caught, it would seem, in a cycle of fear and loathing.

Is it time we discovered different verbal practices in order to break out of this vicious cycle?