Freedom is a fairly complicated issue among humans. That's because of the concept of "property" or "ownership"; we make freedom complicated because we know nothing but "property" and "ownership".
source: Wikimedia Commons
Property is a legal construct; for someone to own something, it must be LEGALLY theirs, necessitating a complicated web of laws and rules, becoming real only after some document is signed. As long as we hold on to this notion of ownership, true freedom will never exist in my opinion. Ownership gives rights to the owner and must be protected, which gives rise to a system that includes courts, judges, police and ultimately government. All forms of power are backed by, and exist because of ownership.
A principle I can fully stand behind, is freedom of speech. This is the foundation of the exchange of ideas, and without that exchange, progress stops, cultural evolution is dead. That's why ownership of an idea is even weirder and more detrimental to human progression than ownership of "stuff". I often wonder what would happen if suddenly all closely guarded patents became public knowledge; I suspect we'd see unbelievable progress. Contrary to the "stuff", ideas MUST be allowed to roam freely. Therefore we must always allow the possibility of offence, because ideas alien to us might come across as offensive, without approving of intentionally offensive remarks.
Personally I would even go so far as to say that if someone truly believes that people of another skin-color are somehow inferior to them-self, they should be allowed to express that belief, because without them expressing that belief, there would never be a discussion about it and we would have spoiled the chance to change minds. Without exchanging ideas, facts and opinions about these things, both sides will stay ignorant about the other perspective, unable to correct it. This is not easy, but freedom isn't easy, not for sentient humans.
source: Max Pixel
We're all aware that free speech is under fire once again, and as always the threat comes from the entities that use their freedom to own stuff and power. Our 21st century Big Brother, Google, owns YouTube, and YouTube released the following:
"To that end, we’ll begin reducing recommendations of borderline content and content that could misinform users in harmful ways—such as videos promoting a phony miracle cure for a serious illness, claiming the earth is flat, or making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11."
source: YouTube Official Blog - Friday, January 25, 2019
Well, it's a good thing we have the internet 3.0 to look forward to, with decentralized apps, not controlled by any central hub of money and power. But in the meantime news like this is so frustrating; YouTube should embrace the opportunity to give a voice to non-mainstream voices, but instead they label them "borderline content"... Yeah, and Google is fast transforming into a borderline online dictatorship...
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