The Solution To Heated Political Rhetoric Isn't Censorship, Its Free Speech

It's obvious to most that we are currently living in a very volatile political climate.  Crime of all types is soaring.  And this includes attacks against politicians, political institutions, and media figures.  From the Capitol building, homes of Supreme Court Justices, and the Speaker of the House to cities all over the US, violence in the name of politics is becoming increasingly commonplace. 

Many will argue it's the left or the right perpetuating the violence.  But the reality is, it's both.  And we should ALL agree that violence is wrong!  Hurting someone because of what they believe is barbaric, uncivilized, and not something that should happen in a free society.  We have free speech to prevent violence-not to cause it!  We are privileged to have this freedom.  Most around the world do not have what we do.  So we must take care of it and respect it.  

Whenever we have a violent attack in the name of politics we immediately retreat to our political corners and blame the other side.  ‘It was the rhetoric of this person’, ‘it was the campaign ad of that person’ is repeated across media platforms.  And we often hear the ‘violence is wrong…but’ narrative.  This usually consists of a weak and half-hearted condemnation of the violence from the offending side.  Then the victim side responds with outrage and directly blames the other side (not the actual perpetrator) for the violence.  Rinse and repeat over and over.  

We also frequently hear calls for a lowering of the political rhetoric.  We shouldn't say certain things, they say.  A mentally ill person may pick up on it and hurt someone.  We’re making society a more intolerant and divisive place when we have no filter on our political speech.  The Biden administration even has used this argument to justify censorship of speech under the guise of preventing hate speech or misinformation.  These efforts to attempt to tone down anger may be well-intentioned but are completely wrong-headed!

The answer is not to lower the political rhetoric, the answer is to help people better deal with adversity and accept that those with different opinions exist. Within a democratic society, we will have a variety of people with a multitude of views. We cannot have a free society with only one view. Part of living in a free democratic society is going to include living with people who disagree with you. The goal should not be to convert or force people to believe exactly as you do.  The goal should be for us ALL to live peacefully with differing views.   

When I was training as a psychotherapist we were taught to help our clients recognize they cannot control the actions of others.  It may sound obvious, but SO MANY of our problems we often blame on others.  How often have you thought, ‘if I had more money my problems would go away’?  Or ‘if this person did this, or didn't do that everything would be fine’?  The answer is probably frequently.  It's easy to blame others for our problems but when we do this we will NEVER solve the problem because we do not control others-nor do we always control situations we are in.  

COVID is a great example of blaming and shaming others for our problems. If only EVERYONE would wear a mask and get the vaccine then people would stop dying.  We now know this isn't true.  Even if EVERY single person wore a mask and got the vaccine the disease would still spread and people would still die.  Radical gender ideology is another example.  We constantly hear if only everyone could accept that men can become women and sex doesn't matter then trans people won't face stigma.  But they cannot force people to believe what they don't believe.  They would only be forcing people to lie which would make those forced to lie resentful and those doing the forcing, tyrants.

We as a society need to stop placing blame at the feet of others.  Yes, injustices exist, but they will always exist.  Yes, sometimes the problem is actually caused by someone else.  But if you do not have control over that someone you can't base your solution on them.  The solution to heightened political rhetoric is to change how we react to it!  

Rather than have the government or even private business (perhaps with gentle nudges from the government) censor ‘hate speech’ or ‘misinformation’, they should work to counter speech with their message.  If you tell a malicious lie about me, what is the ideal solution?  Should I seek legal intervention to suppress your speech or get you canceled?  Or is the more effective option for me to show how you are lying by telling the truth?

When the mainstream media and social media companies worked in unison to suppress the Hunter Biden story before the 2020 election, they did so under the guise of ‘misinformation’. We later found out that story was true.  Not only was that story true but some said it could have swayed their vote, thus possibly impacting the result of the election!  The government told us the COVID vaccine would prevent the spread of the virus.  We now know that was not only false, but they may have known it was false and purposely said otherwise.  Many people had their careers totally destroyed for suggesting COVID might have been a man-made lab accident.  We now have a Senate report suggesting there is a real possibility this is true. 

How can we tell people to tone down their rhetoric and avoid misinformation when half the time the misinformation turns out to be true?  What happens when the truth turns out to be misinformation?  Will those who censored the truth be punished in some way?  Of course not.  By censoring misinformation all you are doing is censoring speech.  And there is often no real way to prove it's false other than some self-appointed ‘expert’ saying so.  This then increases anger, vitriol, and the cycle of violence and hate continues.

Not only is it unconstitutional, unethical, and immoral to censor speech but it is also impossible.  No matter what the government does, no matter how many people they cancel they will never snuff out dissent.  So to avoid continued fracturing in this country they should take a different approach.  If they are truly concerned with ‘hate speech, ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation’ they should stop trying to shut it down and instead counter it with facts and proof.  

The truth wants to prevail.  Whatever that truth may be, we should let it prevail and learn to work through the repercussions, together.