by Mark Hopkins

Created on: August 21, 2010   Last Updated: August 22, 2010

Pardon my puzzlement, writing from the other side of the Atlantic, but when, precisely,  did freedom of speech disappear from Americans' rights (oops, another R word)?  I'm assuming that 'retard' is now added to the list of 'forbidden words';  how sad.

Freedom of speech really does deserve to be defended much more robustly and I for one hope that Jennifer Aniston resists demands that she should apologize for using the word. No one wishes to go out of their way to pick on any disadvantaged group and I doubt very much if she would do any such thing. She merely, I suspect,  spoke a word  in common usage, a word which has several nuances of meaning aside from the literal one. The PC 'thought police' should back off.

Freedom of speech carries with it the possibility that someone will be offended by what a person says. Being offended is a 'right' too, but it should not carry with it the power of veto. 'Actions speak louder than words', as the saying goes, and it is surely safer to judge people by their actions, for which they are accountable under the Law, than to blow out of all proportion an  innocent remark. It seems Jennifer Aniston has been very generous in terms of charitable donations, probably far more so than many of her smug critics.

Where will it all end, if the PC brigade are allowed to censor free speech? Usually in some horrible new euphemism which obscures rather than clarifies meaning, such as 'mis-spoke' for 'told a lie' or 'got the facts wrong'.  (There is a big difference! ) It really will not do to sleep walk into a society in which  self appointed groups tell the rest of their fellow citizens what they can say and what they can not and conduct some sort of 'witch hunt'  against those who merely exercise their right to free speech. A free society can not exist without the right to freedom of thought and freedom of expression.

The Law will always impose some limitation on freedom, such as not divulging state secrets, but the limits should be few and set widely. This may mean that some things are said which others take offence at or disapprove of, but it's a price worth paying. So let's stick up for Jennifer and applaud her critics too, even if, in objecting to the innocent use of the word 'retard', they are acting like idiots!   (Or has 'idiot' been added to the list...? If not, it's only a matter of time if the PC brigade prevail!) .

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