Those that are unable to freely think whatever thoughts that they are so inclined to think, and therefore to freely speak what is on their mind, are by definition, not free. The history of humankind, is regrettably often a history that suppresses the right of the people to freely think, to freely criticize, and to freely be about their business. Those then, that are up in arms, about “hate speech,” disinformation, fake news this and fake news that, have basically got it fundamentally wrong – for what is left unsaid, is that those that are incapable of successfully countering what appears to be false or hateful, with an argument that is sound, sensible, and fair to thereby support their given point, are perhaps less right than they so presume that they are.
Those that want to live within an echo chamber, don’t need to go far, for a given room within a person’s house, can serve that very purpose for people like that. To believe, somehow, that we learn best, by simply having other people always being in agreement with us, or we in agreement with them, is regrettably the pathway that leads to ever diminishing returns. We are meant to challenge, at least some of the time, what is so often taken for granted as being conventional, or right; so that at a minimum, we devote some of our resources to examining such – for those that will not bother to look beyond the orthodox, are doing an injustice to the free thinking capacity of their mind.
It's important that each one of us has an opportunity to speak our mind, and while we might wish that such will always be done in a civil manner, that isn’t always going to be the case. That is to say, so many of the systemic problems that society suffers badly from, essentially comes forth from people that do not believe that they have been given a fair shake, a fair vote, or that anyone or anything is paying fair attention to them – they thus then often strike back through actions which are hurtful, all because nobody has bothered to validate them, by listening to them, as if they actually mattered.
All of us, deserve a free voice, whether or not anyone else so desires to listen to us, is best left though to that other person’s personal volition. So too, those that overly worry about the people being fooled about this, or tricked about that, need to understand that the best way to assure that the people are knowledgeable about what is truly important and vital for them, is for that governance to support wholeheartedly the freedom of the press, free speech, and the value of people reasoning and thinking through things by their own selves, rather than always credulously believing whatever is being sold to them.
Those then, that wish to suppress free speech, because they do not believe that the people have the right to sprout nonsense, misinformation, lies, or hateful expressions -- in addition to those same people also desiring to suppress minority viewpoints, unorthodoxy, inconvenient truths, and unconventional wisdom, need to understand that meaningful change typically comes forth from those that challenge orthodoxy rather than blithely accepting such, and further that every one of us has the unalienable right to say what we wish to say, subject to the most minimal of sensible restrictions.