Naomi van Overveld

The Right to Freely Hurt Others

Organisations like IS and Boko Haram scare our society to no end. It feels like, IS especially, is nearing us more and more and we are deeply concerned about the activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria. When twelve people died in an attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January this year, it seemed to hit even closer to home. Obama called the attack on the newspaper a direct attack on free speech, however I think this is up for debate. Everyone has the right of free speech, however when publicly stating your opinion you should never be forcing this opinion upon others or be purposefully hurtful.

The things that terrorists do should never be pardoned but I think that people would live together more peacefully if sometimes we do not say everything that comes to mind. People like Geert Wilders and Nigel Farrage often have things to say that could be seen as racist, hateful and islamophobic, however no one is stopping them from doing those things because it would go against their right of free speech. Naturally we should not wish for anyone to get shot over what he or she thinks and says, however some outrage towards what Wilders, Farrage and Hebdo have said or publicised is only fair. It sometimes seems like they say those hurtful things only to raise controversy.
To make the world a better place for the upcoming generations we need to start living more individually. With that I mean that people need to understand that everyone has different opinions and that that is okay. We do not all have to agree with one another, for that is an impossible thing to achieve, but for everyone to simply live and let live would benefit us all.

There are people who would not agree with the part of my statement where I say that when stating your opinion publicly you should never be purposefully hurtful towards others. People might say that that would again be an infringement upon their right of free speech and perhaps that is true. Everyone has their own opinion and it could be said that it should not be a point whether or not in might be hurtful for others to hear that opinion. People can sometimes see their opinion as truth and that can be regarded as slightly problematic.

If people were less apt to try and force their opinion on others or to regard that opinion as truth. If people would stop to think about what they are going to say and how that might affect others, we may not even need to protect ourselves so much against each other.