Right to think for yourself

I have insisted for years that freedom of thought is more fundamental than freedom of speech. While I do not believe that people should be censored by law, I feel that it would be far worse to prohibit people from developing certain thoughts.


How can thought even be censored? This is something that can't be done directly. There are ways, however, to fight thoughts once they become visible. There are also methods of establishing societal pressure to conform.

In America, people who deviate from socially acceptable thought are ridiculed. Most independent thinkers become outcasts. Very few people follow that path to avoid the societal consequences. We have effectively lost the right to think independently.

All true thought is independent. If you are accepting what you have been told by others, you are not really thinking. If you take away the right to think independently, you are eliminating thought.

All meaningful progress relies on thought. While we have recently seen a little technological progress that was set into motion decades ago, new ideas have become rare. Unless we open up to new ideas, we will never fix our existing problems.

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List of Human Rights addressed so far:

• Physical Rights
• Right to Life
• Mental Rights
• Right to think for yourself