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Free Speech: Because We Can (Aaron Swartz’s Raw Thought)
Free Speech: Because We Can (Aaron Swartz’s Raw Thought)
Swartz argues that free speech isn’t an instrumental, but a fundamental right, which I’m inclined to agree with. He also makes the slightly odd argument that it could in theory be taken away justifiably if people were being hurt by the lack of constraints on that right.
I wonder where he would set the bar for proof of such hurt: I imagine fairly high. It’s just that most people who want to ban or limit speech claim that people are being hurt because of what is being said. So it’s interesting to be a free speech fundamentalist who concedes that people being hurt would justify limiting freedom of speech. I’m fascinated by the idea of how you determine what kind of hurt, how severe it would have to be and how you could prove it was caused by speech.
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