Stever's blog

I fear that the whole concept of freedom of speech is becoming functionally dead in America. The following video makes a very good point.

There’s been a lot of public uproar lately about Glenn Beck’s statements against Obama and John Mackey’s statements about Universal Healthcare. Unfortunately, it seems that if a public figure makes a statement about a controversial subject, there is a big risk for boycotting. In most cases, the economic loss is enough to prevent the person from speaking up again. Unfortunately, this creates an environment where people are afraid of saying the “wrong thing”. In my opinion, it doesn’t keep with the spirit of the first amendment.

Freedom of speech goes beyond criticizing the government, it’s more about sampling the opinions from all sides. Unfortunately, most people seem to be true believers of one side of an issue. Freedom of speech is pretty much useless if all it does is reinforce the prevailing viewpoint.