Comments by "Mark Pawelek" (@mark4asp) on "Why I’m So Obsessed with Free Speech..." video.

This is now my favorite presentation on Free Speech. I've read entire books on the subject in the past; but as a rationale: why free speech is essential, nothing beats this.
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@stefanlaskowski6660 I can't reproduce the argument in Milton in less than 2 minutes, as I can with Peterson's argument. In the past, I tried to justify free-speech using Enlightenment ideas like fairness & justice. I assumed other people had my concepts of fairness & justice. But the right & modern left don't. I think Jordan Peterson's argument will work with everyone.
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Precis: I don't think there's a difference between free-speech & free-thought. We need free-thought to solve problems. If it's not "free", it's not thought. When we think we will always encounter bad, perhaps evil ideas. The very process of thought throws such ideas up. We ponder them, then dismiss them. We generally think in words. We use speech to organize our our psyches. Thought is like a seminar: question and answer session. We pose ourselves a question in speech & answer it for ourselves. Instead of posing ourselves these questions, we can also talk to other people. For its ability to adapt to the transforming horizon of the future, society must allow its members to think. This is why we need free-speech. People are desperate to be treated as 'someone who has something to say'. We desperately want to be taken seriously by other people. It's the basis of personal relations. Try basing your own personal relations on any other principle but this; "well 'good luck' to that!" Free speech is just this principle of open & honest communication extended throughout society.
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