What is Freedom?

I'd like to ask the reader to consider what freedom means to you?

I am going to tell you what it means to me.

In this country we now have special interest groups left, right and centre trying to censor people and compel people to issue forced and probably fake apologies for simply stating their opinion or doing their day to day work.

We have English police contacting people to check their opinions following non-criminal tweets. Perhaps they should be called the Thought Police?

https://christianconcern.com/comment/the-policeman-told-me-i-need-to-check-your-thinking/

Archived version available here

We need freedom of speech. Part of that means that other people are going to say things that we don't like, but even God Himself allows us to say things that go against his standards so what right do we have to censor others?

Freedom of speech results in a great exchange of ideas and allows people to flourish. Censoring peoples' mouths and by extension their minds turns people into state programmed robots who amble around spouting whatever the state proscribed gibberish of the day is.

Recently we had Hank Azaria, the man who voiced Apu in The Simpsons from 1990 issuing an apology for voicing the Indian character.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/simpsons-star-hank-azaria-apologises-23906812

Archived version here

Will Nancy Cartwright be issuing an apology for being a female voicing Bart Simpson, a male character? I very much doubt it.

If the Simpson were live action then obviously people would need to look like the character they are playing. In such a case the common sense thing would be cast an Indian man to play an Indian man and so on and so forth.

This whole Simpsons issue seems to be in stark contrast to the clamour for a black James Bond. Ian Fleming's James Bond is (as far as I can make out from researching the matter) a white, half Scottish and half Swiss man. In an audio production it might not matter so much what colour the man playing him is as long as the right accent was put on, but in a visual live action production, it is to me, simply political correctness of the highest order to suggest James Bond be played by a man who isn't white.

I don't even think Daniel Craig should have played Bond, his portrayal, to me, isn't in keeping with the established character.

Some these days would want you censored for saying such a thing as James Bond is white. Racism would be the cry. I say no, it is rather dealing with the facts of the matter. James Bond is white and it makes no more sense for a black man to visually depict him than it would for me as a white man to portray Martin Luther King. It isn't as some would say a case of disliking black people, no it is a case of wanting some common sense applied to a situation.

This is where freedom of speech comes in. I have a right to say that, others have a right to disagree with me if they so wish and to state their opinion, but what right do a certain section of society have to shut down debate and discussion? None at all I would say.

All we achieve with censorship is a rise in tensions and a divided society. Division of the level we are seeing this century stops us from achieving good things and polarizes nations. Sensible debate without puffed up egos and a willingness to accept when we are wrong is key to sorting out the problems we are facing in society.

I would say we have reached a peak of absurdness now, but quite often when one thinks things cannot get any dafter, someone, somewhere still manages to surprise you.

I believe in letting people say what they want. As already mentioned God doesn't physically prevent people from saying things He doesn't like so what makes any of us think we have the right to censor the mouth or minds of any man, woman or child?

Of course there are a small number of spoken acts that may require the law system to get involved. For example if someone were to be going round making provenly false and malicious allegations against someone, this would have to be dealt with by the police as harassment and perhaps other charges to boot.

In general though we have to be realise that the only thing we end up with if we censor our fellow men and women is tyranny. The free exchange of ideas surely helps us grow, find truth and challenge ourselves and others in ways that will ultimately benefit all of us and in this era of the fake pandemic we desperately need a freedom of speech, especially in the media in order to expose this ghastly lie.

So to me freedom means being able to speak my mind without fear of suffering any loss from doing so from my fellow men and women. It means being free as God made me to live me life peacefully and with fulfilment and respecting that others too have their lives to live and that as long as we aren't harming others, it should only be God that can command us not to do certain things.