Note: This “Moore to the Point” commentary aired on NewsTalkSTL on Sat, April 16th. Audio included below.
The furor that has erupted over Elon Musk’s move to purchase Twitter has been illuminating, to say the least. Those in favor of it see the appeal of treating the platform as an open forum where speech truly is free. Many of those opposed to it appear to have this twisted notion that in order to protect free speech, we must limit it – that “For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.”
No. Free speech doesn’t threaten democracy – stifling it does.
What ever happened to “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”? Or “Democracy dies in darkness”? Or does that only hold true when certain folk are in charge of the light switch?
The key to healthy public discourse is discernment, not censorship. As Justice Brandeis wrote nearly a century ago: “If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the process of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”