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Fearless

(18,421 posts)
14. My two cents on freedom of belief/speech...
Sat Mar 24, 2012, 11:57 AM
Mar 2012

People to often equate freedom to believe something with freedom to speak something. These two things need to be differentiated.

OF BELIEF

You should be allowed to believe and personally live (as in inside oneself) what ever it is in your heart to think regardless of what it is. No one has the right to tell you that you cannot think or believe as you do SO LONG AS YOU AREN'T HURTING OTHERS. Belief is internal and solely personal and no one has the right to forcibly change your mind.

You should be allowed to say anything that you need to say to defend your ability to have your own opinions. And, no one has the right to tell you that you don't have your opinions.

OF SPEECH

In terms of convincing others of your point of view, you also have every right to do that. However, I believe, with some reasonable limitations. (1) You can't force others to take your point of view by any means including threat, coercion, etc. (2) You do not have the right to lie about your point of view for any reason. (3) You do not have the right to use a privileged position (ie a tv show, radio show, etc.) to further a personal agenda IF it inhibits or in any way excludes others from doing exactly the same thing. (4) You don't have the right to deride or be critical of others points of view, regardless of what they are, even if they are improperly being critical of yours.

Essentially, you have the right to say anything truthful regarding your beliefs in hopes that you may attract people of equal positions to your company using positive, inclusionary language, while allowing for equitable defense of other contradictory positions.

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