FLASH
Shkruar nga Antonio Polito
If you disagree with my ideas, one of two things is true: either you are being paid, or you are stupid and uninformed...
"Free speech" is my friends'; "hate speech" is my enemies'. Easy, right? Navigating American public debate seems to have become incredibly complicated (and dangerous). But you can use the law we just mentioned as a compass that explains everything. It's like the times of religious wars: the heretics are always the others.
The right says: they killed Charlie Kirk, a MAGA hero and a free man, because he openly broke the taboos of political correctness. As a result, MAGAs silence, fire individuals, newspapers, and broadcasters who challenge or mock their views on Kirk’s murder, or threaten them with billion-dollar lawsuits; as happened to comedian Jimmy Kimmel, whose television show was suspended by ABC, a Disney-owned company, for a joke that, incidentally, didn’t do much good.
But you might say: to judge whether a word is "free" or "hate speech," it would be enough to evaluate the facts. You would be wrong. Consider the slogan "Bella Ciao" on one of the bullets used by the young man who shot Kirk. For the right-wing Maga movement, the reference to a "resistance" slogan is proof that the attacker is left-wing; for the left-wing Antifa movement, it is proof that he frequents far-right video games, where the same slogan is used sarcastically.
On the other hand, in Trump's fantasy world, "no fake news, only alternative facts" has long been the rule. A few months ago, in February, US Vice President JD Vance came to Munich to lecture Europeans: "Freedom of speech is regressing here," he said from the stage of a high-level security conference. He also said that "the threat that worries me most is not Russia, nor China, but the retreat of Europe from some of its values." A masterpiece of a speech: where "hate speech" is inserted into "free speech," practically "free hate."
Not even seven months after his vice president's noble call for free speech, Trump is threatening to revoke the licenses of hostile television stations: "97% are against me." And the man he appointed to head the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, also known as the "chief censor," has announced further retaliation: "We're not done with the media ecosystem yet."
What to do? First, we thank Providence, which has so far prevented us from falling into such a political and cultural catastrophe, despite many attempts to imitate it. But then study the antidotes, to avoid falling into the same trap in the future.
The first piece of advice is this: more important than "the speech" is "the audience". What matters is not so much what is said, but how it is heard and understood. We must understand how much prejudice can be inflicted on an audience before someone overdoses. From this perspective, we cannot remain silent. Unfortunately, moralism has long replaced politics here in Italy; and thus, public opinion has been trained to base its judgments more and more on criteria that, being political, are by definition debatable.
Today, (pre)judgment is mainly ethical, and therefore extremely rigid, to the point of intolerance. For thirty years, and even more so in the last ten years, debate has been tuned to only two frequencies: indignation or amusement. Invective or satire. And indeed, comedians vent their voices and politicians try to be comedians. In some cases, one is no longer distinguishable from the other, like "De Luca-Crozza", a figure with two faces, both political and comedic.
There is no longer room for a simply and banally different opinion. If you disagree with my ideas, one of two things is true: either you are being paid, or you are stupid and uninformed. Once upon a time in London, there was a corner of a public park, "Hyde Park Corner", for "freedom of speech": anyone could stand on a bench and appeal to the crowds of passers-by for whatever they wanted. Beautiful, but harmless. Today, any speech, even the most stupid and unmotivated, mobilizes crowds, because instead of a bench, there is the Web.
So if we want to get vaccinated (vaccination is not mandatory, but recommended), we must start by breaking this duopoly of invective and satire. By restoring space and dignity to argument, explanation, and independent journalism. We must return to a public education that encourages them to accept debate as a hallmark of democracy; which only works if I can hope to one day convince those who disagree with me, and vice versa.
The moralistic/indignant scale of public life in the West risks being suicidal. First of all, by making us forget that not far away, those who disagree are imprisoned, sent to Siberia, poisoned or killed. And that freedom of speech is therefore too precious a commodity to be squandered on hatred./Adapted from “Pamphlet” by “Corriere Della Sera”
Ju jeni shum keq informus me vetëdashje e vetë dije. Për një njeri që përdori gjith jeten e tij vetem fjalën e lir dhe humbi jeten e tij ju gezoheni nëse slumturoheni. Dhe për ata që jan ekstremist te majt që dhunojnë që grabisin shkaterojn e vrasin dhe që frymëzohen nga SORAT SORISJANI i MBRONI I DONI. Ja pra kush jeni ju mediat majtiste ekstremiste sidomos Shqiptare se Shqipëria Nëna Markësiste,Leniniste,Enveriste,Sorosjane dhe Narko Trafikante . Ju lutemi kini mëshir mos e trasfirmini dhe vrisni fjalën e lirë do vijë një ditë që dhe ju di ju bëj mirë fjala e lirë. Faleminderit nëse na kuptoni dhe nëse jo përsëri faleminderit JU. Albert Xhani
Shkrim paçavure kryekëput pa lidhje dhe i frymëzuar nga doktrina “woke”