In the United States of America, we have unalienable rights given to use by our creator. In order to preserve these rights, we have a constitution which rather than granting powers to our government actually takes them away.

The First amendment is sacred to our country. Not only does it serve as a check upon our government power but it also is the ethos with which we operate as people.

What does that mean? Simply we must tolerate anyone that is expressing their thoughts and beliefs whether they violate our beliefs or whether we agree with them or whether we have a viscerally negative reaction to them. This is something lost upon the so-called Anti-Fascists as they irrationally rage against what they deem to be Hate Speech.

Why is this so important? It’s intellectually lazy to believe that speech must be halted because it might be a poisonous influence. Any form of speech can have an influence but silencing any speech is a slippery slope to ceding control of speech to unknown censors with dubious agendas.

With free speech, all opinions are thrown into a open marketplace where ideas are reviewed, tested, and judged. We, as a people, can judge these ideas and respond with our own ideas that eventually reject poor opinions. It’s a true survival of the fittest and while it may hurt our feelings, it helps us form a more clear opinion of what each of us believes and what each of us holds dear.

Free Speech is the avenue to understanding ourselves; preventing or censoring it prevents our self-actualization.