February 16, 2017

Why Free Speech Is All That Matters

"If there had not been freedom of speech in the 19th century, I can guarantee you that we would still have slavery today. Powerful voices would have silenced the abolitionists arguments and the modern world would never have come into being. We have labor saving devices because labor became expensive. And labor became expensive because slavery was ended...."

Posted by gerardvanderleun at February 16, 2017 7:43 AM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

Whoever wrote this knows nothing about the political and social history of the United States.

Posted by: Quent at February 16, 2017 8:36 AM

Indeed Quent. The industrial age caused the exact opposite of what that author claims. Beware the communists they are scheming demons dressed in kingly guise - beating down the multitudes and scoffing at the wise.

Posted by: ghostsniper at February 16, 2017 9:13 AM

The industrial revolution is called a revolution because it replaced human and animal power with machine power. Slaves and horses became obsolete. It's like the cotton picking machine introduced in the 1940s. One machine could do the work of 40 people.

Posted by: Ray at February 16, 2017 10:30 AM

Stefan makes a good argument. He suggests that without free speech there would have been no industrial revolution. Eight minutes in to the video you can see where he is going with it.

Remember Hero built the first steam engine in the 1st century.

Posted by: Jim in Alaska at February 16, 2017 11:52 AM

Oligarchical Collectivism be it Crony Capitalism or Communism is what it is... Collectivism.

Both forms of Collectivism thrive on the power of the state and the stifling of critical thought rational argumentation and expression.

Note that the world is now going after so-called Right-wing "Extremists" here in the West as Donald Trump, Marie Le Penn, Geert Wilders... etc.

Posted by: Mr. Smith at February 18, 2017 12:40 PM