Freedom of Speech & Hate Speech

1:36 AM Ferlita Feliana 0 Comments

So, it's already been 3 months after my last post which I said I want to start writing again. Hello again! Sorry for the long delay! I've been so busy lately 😅

These past 3 days, in my social media (Instagram & Twitter) a lot of people are talking about this one so-called-influencer who talk bad about other people's body image. In the time where we always promote self-love and self-acceptance, this person is talking sh*t about others, she defended her act as "freedom of speech". 

It's a quite interesting topic for me, I always believe that every people should be given "freedom of speech" but is that also justify when you talk bad about others?

Quoted from Amnesty International UK, "freedom of speech" h means the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, by any means. It is clearly not the right to say whatever you like about whatever you like, whenever you like.

There's my favorite saying from a character named Thumper in the Bambi movie, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all"

Okay, I agree that we all have this "freedom of speech" but no one had any right to speak in a derogatory way about anyone else. Instead of implementing that "freedom of speech" and saying hurtful words to other people. It's better to think first, are your words gonna hurt or insult or injure anyone, and if the answer is yes, you better keep it to yourself. Nothing's hard, right?

So, it's not that you can't have "freedom of speech" nor you can't criticize other person. But being kind, considerate and empathetic person is also important. You can still criticize other person with kind words which can also motivate that person to be better.

You need to think first, if you're on that person's shoes, will you be hurt by your words? How do you want to be criticize by other person? And applying how you want other people to treat you in treating anyone else.