It means different things to different people unfortunately, and recently, it seems that everywhere, freedom of speech is being brutally attacked in every part of the world and every way possible.
Where I Stand
Complete and uncensored freedom of speech. Anyone can say whatever the hell they want about whoever the hell they want. Nothing is banned, including insults and making fun of others, politicians, the government, religious figures and even deities. You don’t like what you hear? Don’t participate, no one is forcing you to read this or watch that. You’re being an asshole to others? Expect getting a taste of your own medicine.
Lebanon
May Chidiac Disaster
There is no doubt that the people and accounts that said the disgusting things about May Chidiac (regardless of whether the accounts are real or not) are horrible, stupid people. I happen to believe Chidiac is a horrible person too, but agree the stuff said was unfair and low. BUT, I also don’t believe the folks, if they are real, who said and published these, should be prosecuted or such messages or pages be banned by law.
Why? For the simple reason it would allow for further regulation and oppression of free speech, under the guise of protecting sensitivities and “dignity” and whatever big slogans tyrants and religious fundamentalists use.
Samy Gemayel’s Genius
For me, Samy Gemayel approached a similar issue in a very powerful way which I respect him greatly for. A bunch of alleged FPM users said “he must miss his brother, he should follow him already” in reference to his slain brother, Pierre Gemayel. Now, we can all agree how distasteful and hurtful that was, but instead of making a fit and filing for lawsuits, Samy reshared these comments on his page, and allowed for the public to decide for themselves that this talk was cheap and reprimand its posters. It got a LOT of feedback and support to Samy, and a lot of disdain for the original posters.
With that, Samy became the bigger person, did not obstruct or threaten to obstruct freedom of speech and got the issue the attention it deserves and the proper reaction: a public one, away from politicians, clergymen and judges.
Data Controversy
I still can’t believe some folks are ok with the ISF getting ALL your data. Why should the most corrupt of people have access to all your communications for them to manipulate and abuse? Under no circumstance in the universe should what you say with friends/lovers/family/colleagues in private be made available en-bloc to any security forces! This is a travesty and a sad, sad occurrence in the already sad existence of Lebanon.
Reddit: Jailbait and Creepshots controversy
Reddit is the “front page of the internet”. It’s a place to share links on virtually anything and either upvote or downvote them. The more upvotes, the more it’s seen. To put it in simpler terms, all the funny stuff you guys see on 9gag, is pulled off Reddit.
I have been a redditor for over 6 years now. I’ve had over 9 different anonymous accounts and continue to change them regularly, as do most redittors. The beauty of Reddit is anonymity, which allows people to get out of their everyday selves and assume a different personality. Of course, history has shown that when you de-individuate a usually normal, kind person, they can turn into monsters. Examples such as Nazi officers committing atrocities, or the Standford Basement Prison Experiment with the guards’ abuse of the prisoners and countless other examples. V for Vendetta fans would understand best with “give a man a mask, and he’ll tell you the truth”
Reddit hosts beautiful subreddits (on specific topics) like /r/TodayILearned, or /r/Science /r/Atheism, /r/Politics, /r/Funny, /r/AdviceAnimals and 0ver 100,000 other subreddits. Even President Obama is a redditor, hosting an AMA (ask me anything) thread just last month.
Some subreddits though, are less nice. They deal with horrible, horrible topics such as dead teenager photos, creep shots of girls taken without their knowledge, and the most controversial, /r/jailbait which featured sexually suggestive photos of teens under the age of 18. This subreddit has since been banned after a LOT of controversy back then.
The redditor who helped make and moderate all those nasty racist, pedophiliac and gory subreddits was doxxed by Gawker this week. This means Gawker found out who he was, and did the worst thing you could do to an anonymous redditor: reveal to the world his name, age, address, work, and other details of his real life. This of course caused a lot of turmoil in Reddit and many subreddits now ban Gawker links.
People might ask, why the fuck would someone protect a creep and pervert like that? The answer is that Reddit is a staunchly pro-freedom of speech community. There is zero compromise or exceptions to the complete and unregulated freedom of speech under the guise of anonymity. Personally, I was glad that redditor was outed. He got a taste of his own medicine, after all, he uncovered photos and facts of people’s personal lives and revealed them to hundreds of millions of people without their consent. Why shouldn’t he be at the being-trolled end versus his usual troll position.
If he were a political or religious commentator, I would certainly be against doxxing him for reasons he might be killed or prosecuted for what he did. But in this redditor’s case, he did not break any law, he was just an asshole to humanity as a whole and sooner or later someone was gonna get back at him, which is exactly what happened and I feel he deserves it.
THEREFORE, what happened in this case is an example of another freedom of speech conundrum which resolved itself without the interference of government or church/mosque/religious folks, and THAT’s how it should be.
Anti-Blasphemy Laws
One of the reasons I love Obama is his remarks at the UN General Assembly last month about the gibberish of making anti-blasphemy laws by the UN, protecting the need to protect people’s right to say whatever they want, however hateful, disgusting or hurtful they might be to us.
I hope Obama wins on November 6. I wouldn’t wanna live in a world that outlaws blasphemy and makes it a criminal offense and I really hope you agree with me
Brief Conclusion
Freedom of speech should never have limits or regulations even for reasons some people might see fit like dignity and other nice-sounding stuff like that. Why? Because it will inevitably be used by corrupt politicians and clergymen around the world to oppress people with different opinions. Hateful, racist and ignorant expressions need to be countered with the same kind of freedom of expression. Not through violence, nor through legislation. Sort of like a free market system for ideas, where government and church have no say, and it’s the people who decide how things go.
What I truly admire about your blog is that it tries to break the social norm of left and right and emphasizes on the many shades of grey lying sheepishly in between those two extremities.
I do hope that one day, those advocating one side or the other of the political spectrum in Lebanon will realize that in fact their moral compass isn’t guiding them towards where they think they belong, it’s the other way around, they’re being dragged there; and that’s what happens when your focus is on the politician rather than the issue – such as freedom of speech. A topic I doubt us Lebanese have reached a level of social maturity high enough to be able to debate it’s validity within our multicultural society, let alone it’s intricacies and exceptions such as the ones you mentioned.
I’ll be corny and sum up what I’m trying to say with a quote:
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” – Noam Chomsky
Keep it up Gino.
Freedom of speech cannot be defined in one sentence but I’ve always loved a quote that defines best for me “People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.”
People may be attacking freedom of speech but in some cases they are avoiding the freedom of thought (freedom of conscience or ideas) which I think is more important. No one can tell you what to say, but when your sayings may lead to psychological or even physical damage (if it leads to a fight), then there’s something wrong that both parties are doing and needs reconsideration. If some people decide that they can make fun of anyone or anything, including people with disabilities, the Holocaust or others, I will take your words and presume they are free to do so but the question remains if they are ready to bear the consequences? Not all people are at a certain intellectual or cultural level to take all sorts of criticism and by taking freedom of speech to such extremes, you are not elevating the human being but turning him into a caveman unable to advance and progress and just saying outloud whatever he feels like ( And that doesn’t go much with Darwin does it?)
So in all, support freedom of speech all you want but keep in mind the consequences such actions may cause in society and then tell me if it’s still fine to lower a society’s standards just so a comedian or some dumbass could mock a handicap. Is it really worth it?
May Chidiac
The woman escaped an assassination attempt, lost a leg and a foot, and is still fighting in her own career, which I do not like as much as you do. However, while posting jokes on some internet forum about handicaps may amuse some, insulting a person by referring to her disability is as low as anyone could go, and should be punished not because we don’t want freedom of speech, but because it becomes verbal abuse and as I said before degrades society as a whole. Censorship will always be there but comments made on a person who lost her leg could not possibly come out of a person with a free thought, and capable of doing a proper judgment, and should not be disregarded in the name of freedom of speech.
Samy Gemayel’s Genius
I am afraid you cannot compare both cases because Samy’s case is quite silly. He played it smart but they should still file for lawsuit.
Data Controversy
You are an athiest no and Google is your GOD? Well your God doesn’t like privacy and
I agree with you Gino that freedom of speech should be without boundaries or else how is it called freedom of speech ,it’s in the strength of the other party being attacked to protect itself,and Sami Gemayel did it with classe, w baynetna we all know where do low groups attacking certian people from certain parties come from, so they are embarrasing themselves by doing so
Anyone sees the irony in the Gawker Reddit ban?