Tuesday 17 February 2015
Freedom of Speech over Morals?
Charlie Hebdo shootings. Social Media exploded with the hashtag JeSuisCharlie to show respect towards the victims of the shootings and to support freedom of speech. What I would like to discuss is how far we can take freedom of speech without disrespecting others. What does freedom of speech actually mean nowadays?
Sunday 15 February 2015
Je suis Charlie, wait, who?
The shootings in Paris. Who has not heard of it over the past few weeks. The office of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris was attacked by, yes indeed, muslim attackers. The moment this happened everyone went online to show their respect and support by sharing the hasthtag #jesuischarlie.
I do not want you guys to get confused by what I am going to say, because what happened is horrible and freedom of speech is really important to me, but I would like to take a look at it from a different perspective. Everyone around me was posting #jesuischarlie and I was about to post it myself, because such events are not suppose to happen. But I did not actually know who or what Charlie Hebdo was so I decided to google them before supporting something I know nothing about. It took me only 3 minutes of scrolling through google search images for me to decide I will not ever support such a magazine.
If the hashtag would have been different I might have shared it to show respect to what happened, but in my opinion saying I am Charlie is the same as saying I am racist and I hide behind freedom of speech. To me this is exactly what Charlie Hebdo is. I think this also shows the problems in our society when it comes to freedom of speech. I agree we should be allowed to say what we want, but shouldn't there be some sort of moral when it comes to the way you formulate them? Are we allowed to put a label on whole religion or group (in this case the Islam) when you are in a position to reach a lot of people? To put these labels on them in utterly disrespectful ways that first of all do not show any respect to those people whatsoever and secondly will affect people's views on this religion? After the attack muslim people were afraid to go out on the streets, and current events show that they should be afraid. The problem here lies completely with our messed up society and with ignorant people who actually think a few extremists who are not supporting their religion by their actions resemble the whole of islam culture.
Once again, those extremists are completely wrong in every way possible, but does that mean that Charlie Hebdo was right? Does that mean we should all stand behind every word they have said where they hurt people's feelings and got society even further away from accepting people around you?
I would like to know if you guys are okay with the way our freedom of speech works these days.
I do not want you guys to get confused by what I am going to say, because what happened is horrible and freedom of speech is really important to me, but I would like to take a look at it from a different perspective. Everyone around me was posting #jesuischarlie and I was about to post it myself, because such events are not suppose to happen. But I did not actually know who or what Charlie Hebdo was so I decided to google them before supporting something I know nothing about. It took me only 3 minutes of scrolling through google search images for me to decide I will not ever support such a magazine.
If the hashtag would have been different I might have shared it to show respect to what happened, but in my opinion saying I am Charlie is the same as saying I am racist and I hide behind freedom of speech. To me this is exactly what Charlie Hebdo is. I think this also shows the problems in our society when it comes to freedom of speech. I agree we should be allowed to say what we want, but shouldn't there be some sort of moral when it comes to the way you formulate them? Are we allowed to put a label on whole religion or group (in this case the Islam) when you are in a position to reach a lot of people? To put these labels on them in utterly disrespectful ways that first of all do not show any respect to those people whatsoever and secondly will affect people's views on this religion? After the attack muslim people were afraid to go out on the streets, and current events show that they should be afraid. The problem here lies completely with our messed up society and with ignorant people who actually think a few extremists who are not supporting their religion by their actions resemble the whole of islam culture.
Once again, those extremists are completely wrong in every way possible, but does that mean that Charlie Hebdo was right? Does that mean we should all stand behind every word they have said where they hurt people's feelings and got society even further away from accepting people around you?
I would like to know if you guys are okay with the way our freedom of speech works these days.
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