In defense of free speech

Somebody on the internet did a "change my view" thing and argued that it should be illegal to deny the holocaust. This was my response.

I think that making it illegal to deny the Holocaust sets a bad precedent. It would mean we're comfortable with the government engaging in thought control and information control. If we allow the government to prohibit people from denying the Holocaust, then we could no longer object on principle to the government restricting speech in other areas.

You gave several reasons for why we can be sure that the Holocaust happened. If that's your argument, then to be consistent, you have to apply that same reasoning in other areas. You'd have to say that as long as the government thought some point of view was rationally justified and/or irrational to deny, then the government would have the right to force people, by law, to be silent about opposing views.

Shutting up opposition by force of law is the absolute worst way to settle disputes. If one point of view is so justified that it's irrational to deny it, then the argument should win the day, not the law. And if there are nut-cases who resist the force of reason, then so be it.

There have been a lot of ideas that people have been relatively certain about that were overturned eventually. Newton's law of gravity was overturned by Einstein's general theory of relativity. People were once so convinced that the Pope was God's representative on earth, that they would burn people at the stake for defecting from Catholicism.

Do you really want to leave it up to the government to decide for everybody else what is "certain"? How can you be confident that they'll stop with the Holocaust? What will you do when nut cases gain powerful positions in government and decide some other view is certain and want to silence opposers?

It's a dangerous idea to say that the government should have the power to shut people up who they deem to hold the wrong opinions.

A free exchange of ideas is the best way for a civilized society to arrive at truth and avoid error, not government suppression.