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Title: Do Anarchists Support “Free Speech”? Author: ziq Date: 2018 Language: en Topics: free speech, rights, state power, anti-state, primer, censorship, introduction, introductory Source: https://raddle.me/wiki/free_speech
“Doublespeak is language that deliberately obscures, disguises,
distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the
form of euphemisms (e.g. “downsizing” for layoffs, “servicing the
target” for bombing, in which case it is primarily meant to make the
truth sound more palatable. It may also refer to intentional ambiguity
in language or to actual inversions of meaning. In such cases,
doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth.”
The concept of “free speech” is fundamentally flawed, and has
historically been used to convince citizens of states that they have
“rights” that are gifted to them by the supposedly benevolent and
generous state.
In actuality, the state doesn’t give you rights; it controls them,
limits them, denies you them. It uses its monopoly on violence to
censor, stalk, spy on, imprison and terrorize anyone that would threaten
to subvert its power.
When an authority grants you “free speech”, what they’ve really done is
take away your freedom to speak, and then allow certain people
(typically the favored social class) to say certain things under certain
conditions. There’s nothing “free” about this. You’re still forbidden
from speech that would threaten the state or those it empowers. You’re
still legally viable for slandering powerful people that can afford as
many lawyers as it takes to sue you into bankruptcy. You’re still beaten
to a bloody pulp (or worse) for talking back to a cop. You’ll still be
imprisoned, enslaved and murdered by the state and its enforcers for
being the wrong race or the wrong gender or the wrong sexuality or the
wrong religion or the wrong class and daring to resist your oppressors.
Free speech is a lie told to us by our rulers to convince us we need to
be ruled by them.
Anarchists are aware enough to realize the state does not grant us any
kind of freedom. The entire existence of the state is predicated on
taking freedom away from us to empower the rich and powerful minority
that the state exists to serve. So as anarchists; as people who don’t
want to be ruled, people who see the blatant lies our rulers tell us for
what they are, it would make little sense for us to support an
inherently Orwellian concept as “free speech”. Much more honest words
for this concept would be “controlled speech” or “state-approved
speech”.
Really, when the state talks about freedom of speech, they’re most often
talking about the freedom to be a hateful bigot — since bigotry is
really the only type of speech the state will go out of its way to
protect. Bigotry allows the state to scapegoat undesirable groups and
thus create gaping social divisions. If everyone is villainizing
migrants or gays, those groups will serve as a fine distraction.
Ensuring our rulers and their benefactors can live to exploit us for
another day as we focus our rage at anyone but them.
According to the state, white supremacists are free to incite hatred
against non-whites (which has often led to mass murder), but if someone
were to say they think the president of the nation deserves to be
stabbed for his crimes... Well, that person would promptly be carted off
to prison for voicing such a dangerous idea.
Unfortunately, some people insist on using bigoted or otherwise
oppressive language in anarchist spaces, claiming that free speech
allows them to do so. Since we’ve established that free speech is
nothing more than an insipid lie our rulers tell us in order to control
us, it’s important that we reject the dishonest language of the state
when talking about anarchy, and take a long hard look at the reasons
someone would have for clinging to the state’s shrewd promises of
“rights” and “freedoms” that simply don’t exist.
“Free speech” is not an anarchist principle in any way. Actual anarchist
principles of course include direct action, mutual aid, taking a strong
stance against authority in all its guises, as well as freedom of
association. This means we are free to associate with whoever we want
and free to avoid associating with people that would build authoritarian
structures to oppress us.
So let’s talk about the people who enter anarchist spaces, direct slurs
and hateful bigoted rhetoric at us, and then insist we accept their
abuse because they have the sacred right to freedom of speech... These
people simply have no understanding of anarchy. Their “right to free
speech” that they insist we respect could only be granted to them by a
state with a monopoly on violence. If someone comes into your space and
calls you a racial slur, no institution should have the power to stop
you from showing that person the door.
It takes an incredibly sheltered person to believe there should be no
consequences for abuse. When someone is abusing you or people you care
about, you should absolutely be free to take a stand and remove them
from your space, no matter how many times the person cries “free
speech!” as they’re telling you you’re a worthless (slur).
The “freedom” to scapegoat, demonize and demean people who are different
from you really stands in direct contradiction with anarchy.
Discriminating against people based on ability, race, gender or
sexuality creates authority. It makes you an authoritarian. Your
rhetoric directly alienates the people who belong to the groups you’re
choosing to look down on in disgust and present as less-than human. By
using demeaning language to chastise marginalized people for their
perceived inadequacies, you’re upholding normative social roles,
creating classes and subclasses and strengthening the authoritarian
power structures that directly oppress any people that belong to
minority groups.
For example, by using the word “faggot” as an insult, you effectively
cast gay people as being worthy of scorn and derision. You assert
authority over everyone who isn’t heterosexual and make life incredibly
difficult for people that don’t meet the normative standards you’ve
helped construct to maintain the social dominance of heterosexuals.
Anarchists can and will choose to not associate with people that claim
they have a right to oppress others. Anarchists are anti-authoritarian
to our core, and this means we don’t have to put up with hateful bigots
in our spaces.