Free Speech Limitations Essay

The concept of free speech is heavily debated in the media. It is human nature to laud our superiority over others, and with free speech, the results are people, who may not be smarter, trying to put down others and push their opinion on them. Free speech is vital for the health of our society but it most definitely needs limits too. In a perfect world freedom of speech would be allowed up until the point when you are purposely hurting and offending people, but it would be impractical to legislate this. Inciting violence and infringement of the law such Blasphemy, are examples of the limitations. The phrase was no coined to mean that speech should never be limited because there are cases in which it is crucial. There has never been a society that had permitted speech without certain bounds to it. We must not fight for unlimited free speech, because this cannot be preserved. The imperfections that come with freedom of speech are far outweighed by the oppression that would occur if we didn’t have free speech at all, which can be seen through the decades such as the despotic regimes of Stalin, Pol Pot and Hitler.
The case on the shooting at Charlie Hebdo was an absolute tragedy for …show more content…
The entitlement to freedom of speech, often lacks consideration for the potential consequences, especially when used to purposely antagonise people. When people choose to ignore the impact that comes with purposely hurtful accusations such as sectarianism, bigotry, discrimination and so on, it tarnishes the premise of free speech for everyone else. An example of this can be seen in adolescents, in cases of bullying. Young teens tend to have rebellious habits and this can lead to them bullying and causing harm to other teens. In many tragic cases, this had led to teens committing suicide as a result of bullying. This is a case when someone has not understood the consequences and responsibilities that come with free