Freedom of thought

In the United States, freedom of speech is a protected right. Unfortunately, freedom of thought is not. Freedom of though is more important and more fundamental.


If you say something that the mainstream doesn't approve of, the mainstream will turn against you. Americans have developed a serious conformist mentality over the years. You have the right to say what you feel about modern society as long as you feel the same way as everybody else. Any deviations from the mainstream will be held against you. For that reason, you have to be careful about what you say in this country.

It's not when you speak your mind that you can get into trouble. It's when your thoughts deviate from what is socially acceptable. What's the only way not to deviate? To restrict your thoughts to those shared by the mainstream. As a result, Americans really don't have freedom of thought.

Freedom of speech is irrelevant without freedom of thought. If everybody is trying to send the same socially approved messages, then there's no reason to restrict their messages. If you have no reason to restrict speech, then there's no reason to specify freedom of speech. If we don't have freedom of thought, why did the founding fathers even bother with freedom of speech?

Call it a hunch, but I don't think the bill of rights were designed with prohibition of thought in mind. We should have the right to think for ourselves. This is why we have freedom of speech. It's just too bad that freedom of thought is not officially protected.