In our study of the various modes of censorship by corporations and governments against the people, we have learned to distinguish between people who promote censorship (1,9) and those who prefer the right of free expression (2). The well-known British actor Rowan Atkinson has proven himself to be a defender of our right to express ourselves freely. In the excerpt below from a longer speech he gave all the way back in 2012 (3), we can hear that his message is still very valuable today.

NEW INTOLERANCE AND THE DESIRE TO GAG
Here’s a transcript of a part of his speech that I selected (7). For the more lazy readers I have put relevant parts in bold letters.

“Although the law under discussion has been on the statute book for over 25 years it is indicative of a culture that has taken hold of the programs of successive governments that were the reasonable and well-intentioned ambition to contain obnoxious elements in society has created a society of an extraordinarily authoritarian and controlling nature that is what you might call the new intolerance a new but intense desire to gag uncomfortable voices of dissent

‘I am NOT intolerant’ say many people, say many softly spoken highly educated and liberal minded people, ‘I am only intolerant of intolerance’ and people tend to nod sagely and some, yes wise words, wise words, and yet if you think about this supposedly inarguable statement for longer than 5 seconds you realize that all it is advocating is the replacement of one kind of intolerance with another which to me doesn’t represent any kind of progress at all.

Underlying prejudices and justices or resentments are not addressed by arresting people they are addressed by the issues being aired argued and dealt with preferably outside the legal process.

For me the best way to increase society’s resistance to insulting or offensive speech is to allow a lot more of it.

As with childhood diseases you can better resist those germs to which you have been exposed we need to build our immunity to taking offence so that we can deal with the issue that perfectly justified criticism can raise our priority should be to deal with the message not the messenger.” (3,6)

FOOTNOTES
(1) Posting videos on Riots can be a Criminal Offence in the United Kingdom
(2) For now we should cherish platforms like X (9), Telegram (4) and Rumble (5).
(3) In full: Rowan Atkinson on free speech
(4) Recognizing Telegram as a True Free Speech Platform
(5) Rumble received Censorship demands from Australia and New Zealand
(6) Rowan Atkinson: In Defence of Free Speech, 2012 (British Heritage)
(7) In the complete speech he starts talking about former president Obama. That seemed to be a good moment to stop recording this speech.
(8) Rowan Atkinson through the years
(9) How the EU Proposed to Secretly Censor X – Nobody Needed to Know

Image on top of this article is from (8).