That XKCD gets brought up every time someone mentions free speech and all it does is make a bad argument and refute its own bad argument.
First, who's the "asshole?" In ANY situation, people point at each other.
But more importantly, free speech is how we democratically resolve conflicts.
Rather than fighting about things, we discuss and vote. As a conflict resolution mechanism, democracy which rests on freedom of speech, has been extraordinarily successful.
And yet it's always under threat by people who when they are in power feel the temptation to ban the people they don't like from taking part. Even though the people we disagree with are exactly the people with whom we have to resolve conflicts.
For thousands of years, when someone got into power, they would use force to keep others from gaining that same power, meaning the only way to get power was by force. That puts the most brutal in power. Welcome to the dark ages.
Talking about things is much better, even if it means hearing things you don't like. Sometimes you are right, and sometimes you are wrong.
First, who's the "asshole?" In ANY situation, people point at each other.
But more importantly, free speech is how we democratically resolve conflicts.
Rather than fighting about things, we discuss and vote. As a conflict resolution mechanism, democracy which rests on freedom of speech, has been extraordinarily successful.
And yet it's always under threat by people who when they are in power feel the temptation to ban the people they don't like from taking part. Even though the people we disagree with are exactly the people with whom we have to resolve conflicts.
For thousands of years, when someone got into power, they would use force to keep others from gaining that same power, meaning the only way to get power was by force. That puts the most brutal in power. Welcome to the dark ages.
Talking about things is much better, even if it means hearing things you don't like. Sometimes you are right, and sometimes you are wrong.