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The Silencing: How The Left Is Killing Free Speech

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The popular belief is that the left side of the political spectrum is the more liberal and open-minded to ideas and beliefs. I was one of those people that believed that liberals were the more politically accepting. However, as Kirsten Powers describes in her book, The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech, this is not always true. Rather, a lot of those people who identify themselves as being liberal, are not really liberal because they actually shut down ideas and the people that go against their own beliefs. According to Powers, there are two types of liberals. There is the “traditional” liberal that really is respectfully open to different ideas and liberties, and then there are the ones that claim to be open to ideas and liberties …show more content…

I believe that Powers makes some very valid points on how expression is censored in the more modern “liberal” era. I think that it is within everybody’s right to believe in whatever they want and have the right to express it. More importantly, what I have really taken away from this class is: just because you may think something is “offensive’, “obscene,” or “wrong” does not mean the person next to you may see it that way as well. As we discussed in class, in particular cases, who really is capable of deciding what is truly right or wrong? Who is this “reasonable person” to decide for all what is politically correct or not? It is evident that we all have ideas of our own and that should be respected. I do not think another person has the right to dictate what is the “correct” way to feel about particular issues. Only an individual can feel what is right to them. Furthermore, it is certainly not okay to get a person fired for their political beliefs. As citizens of a country built upon the concept of freedom, we should respect that. We should all respect and accept the fact that having different views is okay because that is how we learn from each other in order to continue grow as a great

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