Can freedom of speech exist in nations with strong governments?
Posted on April 30th, 2010 by admin
Throughout the world, countries with strong governments do not allow free speech. This is even true in European countries that forbid speech that criticizes government policies disguised in legislation called hate crimes and thought crimes. So can a nation with a strong government, allow freedom of speech or does it disappear because the strong government tries to be a nanny state and determine the rights it can provide and take away from its citizens?
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. As such, our Founding Fathers chose to expressly limit the powers of the federal gov’t in the Constitution. That said, we’ve allowed our gov’t to grow to a point that the Constitution is completely ignored. The vast, vast majority of what Congress votes on every day is unconstitutional under various amendments.
When people allow the gov’t to grow too powerful, rights are trampled. Thus, when carried to the extreme, the answer to your Q is, "No."
April 30th, 2010 at 6:49 am
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. As such, our Founding Fathers chose to expressly limit the powers of the federal gov’t in the Constitution. That said, we’ve allowed our gov’t to grow to a point that the Constitution is completely ignored. The vast, vast majority of what Congress votes on every day is unconstitutional under various amendments.
When people allow the gov’t to grow too powerful, rights are trampled. Thus, when carried to the extreme, the answer to your Q is, "No."
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April 30th, 2010 at 7:17 am
Not usually. Our government is special in that it has the potential for being strong (and was at one point) and has the rights of the citizens (including freedom of expression) written (well rather amended into) our Constitution. All strong governments can do that if they weren’t afraid of being overrun with personal opinions, which wouldn’t happen very much.
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April 30th, 2010 at 7:33 am
You are confusing strong governments with totalitarian and authoritarian governments. And no that is not possible to have free speech with a totalitarian or authoritarian government. Hate crimes are unconstitutional as are thought crimes in the US but are tolerated by the citizens because of some perceived notion that hate crime laws protect people more and promote acceptance of minorities. Most often than not the opposite is the reality.
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April 30th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Yes, a government that has been given power by the people to regulate a nation answers to the people first. It’s not a matter of how strong the government is, but what type of government it is. Rights should not be "given" by a government, because rights are something all humans have, whether or not a government exists to give them. Instead, a government should protect people’s rights.
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