[eoxotfrk] Embrace offensive speech

Embrace offensive speech: don't just merely tolerate it.  The more offensive, the better.

Inane offensive speech being spoken signifies lack of mechanisms which could also be used to silence important speech.  So long as inane offensive speech keeps being spoken, we know that important speech, perhaps also offensive to some, can get also through.  Whenever inane offensive speech is blocked, who knows what important speech is also getting blocked?

While government can be a powerful actor in censorship, it can also be accomplished by extra-judicial means: social actions aimed at punishing the speaker of offensive speech, perhaps loss of income or unhappiness.  All such actions, despite many being legally permitted, are antithetical to the principle of freedom of speech: the free expression of ideas, unfettered by governmental or nongovernmental restraints, is fundamental to a healthy democracy.  Freedom of speech is hard.

Offensive speech means democracy is working...

Have you held your tongue for fear of the social repercussions of offending someone?  Have you meted out social punishment, e.g., shunning, against someone for speech that offended you?

...maybe this is one of the reasons why democracy isn't working.