Free Speech

It is worth noting that enshrining free speech as a fundamental human right is a MONUMENTAL achievement.  This right has not been formally respected in any human society large enough to formulate standing governments and formal laws, at least none that I know of.  Every major civilization has had kings, and those kings have always enjoyed the right to punish anyone who criticized them.  They have been, of course, overthrown many times, but the new kings retained that same right, even if the wiser among them chose to exercise it rarely.

What is great about America?  Why don’t we start with that?  We were the FIRST and still largely the ONLY nation on the planet which has free speech as a foundational right.  Certainly, other nations like Britain and Holland largely respect free speech, but they retain–and increasingly are using–the right to suppress speech they don’t like–for example the words of people who want to tell needed truths about Islam in public.

And ponder Islam. You can be KILLED for publicly criticizing Islam, or its leaders.  You can be KILLED for becoming a Christian, or even an atheist.  All the Arab and other Islam-influenced governments retain the right–the governmental right, which is inversely proportional to individual human rights–to suppress any speech they want.

You do not have free speech in Cuba.  You have “free” shitty education, “free” shitty healthcare.  But if you want to rail against the system, you go to jail, where torture is a very real possibility.

How do human beings who claim to be worthy of the name somehow find themselves on the sides of torturers, and opposing the radical and much needed advancements in human civilization which found expression in the American Constitution?