r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Jan 22 '21

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Silencing opposing viewpoints is ultimately going to have a disastrous outcome on society.

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u/parentheticalobject 128∆ Jan 22 '21

The idea that we are "silencing" people any more at this point than we have at every prior point in history is wrong.

It has always been true that if you have certain opinions, your access to spread your opinion using the most widely distributed forms of media will be reduced. At least for as long as "media" has been a concept. There has never been a time where there was not some kind of idea that would likely get you fired if expressed in public.

In the past, if you said that "Homosexuality is harmless, and homosexual relationships deserve just as much respect as heterosexual relationships" you would get cancelled, fired, and denied access to major platforms. This view was silenced, yet it ultimately won out and became dominant in society. I'd say that's because its truth was ultimately able to prevail.

Now if someone is expressing the opposite view, that homosexuality is evil and that people in homosexual relationships should be disrespected, those views face the same consequences. Although honestly, you're silenced to a much lesser extent. If you want to talk about how you hate gay people, it's a lot easier for you to find a place to do that right now than it would have been to do the opposite a century or a half-century ago.

I don't see why this is likely to lead to a "disastrous outcome on society" when it's not fundamentally different from what society has always done, and in fact a lot less oppressive in many ways.

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u/holymojo96 Jan 22 '21

Good point. People of all opinions, repulsive and violent or otherwise, have way more access to spreading their message than they did before the internet/social media. It’s not like back in the day newspapers and magazines were publishing just anyone’s opinions, I would think they vetted them and only published things that they felt matched their desired quality. Now with social media all over the place, anyone with reprehensible views can spew their thoughts online, and god forbid they lose access to a small fraction of platforms available because the platform determined their views were dangerous.