When a Bermagui cafe and art studio owner placed a sign outside his store indicating it would be open on “National Dickhead Day”, no-one could have predicted the sudden and vehement criticism across the country.
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Or could we?
In the modern age of Facebook and social media, nothing is sacred or secret, and everything is open to scrutiny, praise, ridicule or outrage.
If indeed the sign was only on display for 15 minutes or so, the reaction once a photo of it hit Facebook is even more incredible given that tens of thousands of people apparently saw it.
While refraining here from a discussion over whether or not the sign was appropriate – or if indeed the reaction proved the sentiment – some comments in among the threats of violent retribution and insults of a very personal nature, were those highlighting that paragon of democracy, free speech.
Freedom of speech is the right to communicate one's opinions and ideas without fear of government retaliation or censorship.
It’s not exactly enshrined in our Constitution, but it’s understood to be a given that everyone is entitled to their opinion and, within reason, to express it publicly.
The logical extension to everyone being able to express their opinion is that not everyone is going to agree.
Does that give them the right to argue against it? Of course.
To “play the man instead of the ball”? Unfortunately yes, within reason and without crossing boundaries into, for example, hate speech or racial/religious vilification for which there are legal ramifications.
Free speech is free whether you like it or not.
The flipside to free speech is censorship, or to a lesser extent “political correctness”.
Not that we engage in censorship, but as a media outlet in a small regional area, we have community standards to uphold and laws by which to abide, so not everything posted on our Facebook page, or emailed in to the paper, is published.
That said, if there are fair arguments being made, who are we to deny them – whether we agree or not (criticisms of the paper for example!).
If we allow free speech and, in a democracy, give everyone’s opinion equal weight, everyone is entitled to their platform and potential 15 minutes of fame/infamy (except perhaps Donald Trump).