What Freedom of Speech Really Means

Personal Bias and a Confession

First, let’s get the part out of the way where someone says they are looking for unbiased information or data without opinion thrown in. Sorry, as long as you are dealing with humans (or even human-created tools like generative AI), there will be at least some bias. 

For humans, this is just natural. We see (and hear) what we want to hear through the lens of our experience. Our brains filter things this way, and it’s inevitable. So when we share opinions (like the ones in this post) our bias affects what we say, or really repeat, but more on that in a moment.

From the start in this article, I want to clarify that I have personal bias – since everyone does, that isn’t news, but I’ll do my best to set that aside.  Still, if you see something here you disagree with, it could be your bias, or it might be mine. If you’ve read my posts about religion, you’ll know I have a bias in that area, and perhaps for good reason. But it means my message does not resonate with everyone, and I am perfectly okay with that. 

When it comes to freedom of speech, though, I think I have a pretty good grasp of the concept. 

Freedom to Do (or Say) Does Not Mean Freedom from Consequences

This concept came to me early from my grandfather, and I have found it to always be true. He used the simple example perhaps all of us have heard: You are free to scream “Fire!” in a crowded theater even if there is no fire. But you are not free from the consequences of that action. 

If there is no fire, first those in the theater who were enjoying the show and reacted to your screamed statement will likely be angry at you. No excuse you offer will take away the interruption and stress you may have caused. 

The theater and the owners, management, and employees may be upset with you, and might even have grounds to sue, especially if all of those moviegoers want their money back, since they actually didn’t get to finish watching the show. Your “choice” cost everyone in and related to the theater something. 

And finally, if the theater called the fire department to come check for a fire, you may find yourself in trouble with the civil authorities as well. While what you did may not technically be criminal, the result was a waste of public resources. The consequences for this choice touch a multitude of people. 

Lastly, your integrity will be in question. How can I believe you when you scream “Fire!” in other circumstances? You’ve proven that you are not reliable. Note I did not say you have proven yourself a liar – yet. You may have been mistaken, and thought you saw or smelled a fire. Someone might have whispered to you that there was a fire, and you may have shouted it with the perfectly good intentions of warning those around you. 

But either way, you aren’t a reliable Fire Detector and Shouter, so in another situation where you are correct, you may not be believed. But wait! You also may not be the only one at fault.

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear (Read, or See)

This is another of my grandfather’s sayings, and it applies here. Using the same example, when someone shouts “Fire!” in a crowded theater, one of two things can happen: either those present believe that person, or they begin to check the facts for themselves. 

Is there a smell of smoke anywhere? Are flames visible? Has someone actually pulled the fire alarm? Are smoke detectors going off? Wouldn’t at least some of those things be true if there were actually a fire? Instead of just evacuating on the word of one person, perhaps we should evaluate the situation first. 

That’s hard to do in an emergency. A yell of “fire!” screams for your immediate attention: if you are wrong, and don’t listen, the consequences could be dire. So maybe the “better safe than sorry” survival instinct kicks in here. 

However, not everything is an emergency, as much as the media would like you to think it is, and not everything requires your immediate action and response. And maybe, just maybe, if we consider the source of the person yelling “Fire!” we can avoid a lot of pain. 

But what does all this really mean? Well, first, let’s define freedom for a moment. 

What Freedom Really Means

Here’s the deal. Even my fundamentalist Christian friends have to agree that God has given free will to humans, and that free will is sovereign. In other words, I cannot stop you from doing or saying things, and you cannot stop me. This freedom is not a right, it is just a fact. 

For example, anyone is free to steal from anyone else. We can, and do, offer consequences for that action, but that comes AFTER the action happens. Attempts at prevention often involve the threat of the consequence that will follow the action: “You don’t want to do that, or this will happen to you.” If your parents never said this to you, they were ahead of the curve when it came to positive parenting, and you missed out on some good stuff. 

I mean, we threaten our kids with Santa Claus and the naughty list. Yet our kids prove day in and day out that they are free to disobey – and we are free to discipline them appropriately. 

Freedom also applies to everyone. If have the freedom of speech to say neo-Nazis are wrong, you are free to say they are not wrong. This is why Substack came under fire, but if the platform is going to offer true freedom from censorship (looking at you, steamy romance authors and others) then that freedom applies to everyone. 

This is a tough one, because freedom of speech applies to both hate and love. Innately, most of us don’t like that. I don’t want someone to, as a Christian cheerfully explained to me on a certain social platform the other day, say “It is ludicrous to even say that Jesus loves homosexuals.” (Yes, that is an actual quote, for another post on another day.)

However, that person has the freedom to say those words. He’s likely not free from some eternal consequences, but that’s related to my personal bias. I don’t want that person to have the freedom to say such things.

• Or that the earth is flat, not round.
• Or that certain people groups are less than others.
• Or that their religion or God is the only true one. 
• Or that electric vehicles and windmills are the only future, and Elon Musk is our savior.

And the list could go on. Because I have opinions, many of which I believe are based in fact. Yet if I have freedom to offer the list above, everyone who believes contrary to that also has the freedom to express their opinions, even if they are wrong.

Aside from simple factual errors like that the earth is flat or birds are not real, and clear opinions like hate speech, how do we tell if someone is right or wrong? Well, it’s time to talk (briefly) about what it means to fact-check and do your own research. 

Doing Your Own Research

I don’t know how many times I come across in comments online where someone says either “I did my own research” or “go do your own research” and it grinds my gears every time. Simple reason? 90% of the time, “doing your own research” is either extremely time consuming and difficult or in some cases impossible. 

This is where we get deep, and I’ll save that for yet another article for another time, but it’s time to talk about a few critical things to research: 

• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Verified Experts
• Peer-reviewed Materials
• Surveys and Studies

Each of these comes with its own set of standards. How do I know? Well, because I’ve been a researcher for a long time, and associate with a lot of other researchers along the way. We all have standards for what constitutes “proof.” Let me give you an example.

I did research into the history of mining companies and mines for the federal government, specifically the EPA. There are two ways to determine what a mining company spends its money on. One is the public facing earnings reports or annual reports that go out to stockholders. That, however, is a secondary source and in many cases contains propaganda (essentially information spun so people think it means what you want them to think it means) or the actual financial records of the company. Both exist, but the second is much harder to find and research. 

Through forensic accounting, though, we can look at what a company actually does with its money instead of what it tells shareholders it does with its money. This was especially critical in the late 1800s and early 1900s when transparency, well, we’ll just say was not the top priority for these companies. Certainly not ahead of profits. And don’t even get me started on what happened in the 1970s and early 80s with the Clean Air and Water Act. 

But to “do my own research” took not only hours, but the expertise to know what I was looking at. It is the same with any other topic. If you are a medical professional, I might believe what you have to say in your area of specialization, but if you are a pediatrician, don’t expect me to take your advice on cancer treatments. 

You see what I mean? You have to find experts in the field, look at peer-reviewed papers, which help remove bias (most of the time, not always) and primary and secondary sources. You have to understand surveys, studies, and statistics, and find out what they actually mean. And even if you are a high-level genius, there is just too much data out there in the world for you to be an expert in all of it. 

To know if something is a fact or not is hard – harder than you think. Proof is a big deal, and so fact checking is challenging at best. What that means is that someone will say something false and there is a high chance that at some point you will believe it. You might even spread it around to others because you honestly believe it to be true. 

So we’ve all made mistakes and used our freedom of speech to spread something untrue.

Freedom Isn’t Free

This article has gone on long enough, but to summarize, we’ll just say this: freedom of speech is for everyone, good or bad, right or wrong, hate or love, anyone can say anything at all. If this stops being true, then no one has freedom of speech. It’s an all-or-nothing thing. 

Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences. Freewill means you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, and I can’t stop you. But in almost all cases, there will be consequences, either good or bad. 

Sometimes, the facts are hard to determine, but it is our responsibility to try. Some falsehoods are obvious, some things are just opinions, but others are more nuanced, and it is good to know that from the start. Research is hard, and most people are ill-equipped to “do it themselves.”

The takeaway? Maybe think for a minute before you say something. See if it is not only true, but think about the potential consequences. It may be wiser to just keep that thing to yourself. 

When you see something, or hear it, or read it, take the time to evaluate what it is. Is it opinion, or fact? If at first you think it is a fact, consider the source and how reliable that person or even institution is. We can’t stop, but we can fight, propaganda and “fake news.” But just because we fight it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have the right to be said. Those are two different discussions, and it’s important that we know the difference.