Popingay

A Remedial Lesson In Free Speech/Expression

Hockey is a huge thing up here in Canada (although I don’t understand the appeal, and don’t tell me I’m not a real Canadian—I hate Tim Hortons too), which is why when an NHL player makes a video in support of marriage equality in NY it’s a pretty exciting thing. Yay!

However, this tends to draw out the idiots in droves, which includes a Tweet from a Canadian sports management agency that reads:

Very sad to read Sean Avery’s misguided support of same-gender ‘marriage’. Legal or not, it will always be wrong. (Source: Towleroad)

Of course the internet refused to let that one pass, and there was fallout galore (Towleroad has excellent coverage). Immediately the Tweeter (company VP and son of the owner), and his father ran back behind the shield of “it’s my personal position/viewpoint/opinion”.

All too often when people are criticized for homophobic comments, they clutch to freedom of speech/expression like a drowning person to a lifesaver. “But it’s my opinion” they shriek, pretending as though that somehow makes their comments proof from criticism or opposition.

Well, boys and girls, has Teacher Kris has a lesson on free speech for you; so pens and paper out, because you’re about to get schooled.

Here’s the funny thing about free speech: you’re not the only one who gets to indulge in this privilege. As free as you are to express your thoughts on everything ranging from political views to your favourite My Little Pony, I am equally free to think that you’re a moron. You see, it’s freedom of speech/expression, not freedom from consequences speech, or freedom from criticism speech.

So when you tweet that gay marriage is immoral, I am free to criticize that opinion, even if in recent memory my retorts have been less reasoned rhetoric and more incoherently screaming obscenities. Yes, it’s your opinion that gay marriage is wrong, you can have it, but it’s my opinion that you are a grade-A tool.

A little side-note: in Canada free speech is tempered by restrictions on hate speech. So while it is your prerogative to say “gay marriage is wrong”, you have no such right to say “we should kill all gay married people”. The rules are a bit hazy sometimes, but if you’re targeting or advocating violence or hatred, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’re going to be in a bit of trouble.

What’s really funny is this company’s insistence that it’s just standing up for the rights to express their opinions. The original tweeter was “disappointed” to be called a hateful or a bigot, and I hate to break it to him considering his rudimentary understanding of free speech, but that’s kind of what a bigot is. It would be an exaggeration to call his speech hate speech though (see: above), but that’s a sort of rhetorical hyperbole, kind of like when his dad compared gay marriage to man-horse marriage in the National Post. Oh yes, he went there.

So to summarize: you are allowed to hold and express opinions, no matter how asinine, and it is your prerogative to share them with the world (provided they’re not hate speech when in Canada), but I am also allowed to do so too, and use my powers of free speech to eloquently retort, “boo, you suck!”.

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P.S. I think Twitter is the leading cause of nightmares for PR people.