Name: 言論自由（即使是有害的）的理由 (The case for free speech (even when it’s harmful))
Uploaded: 2025-09-16T17:53:04.000Z
Duration: 6 min 52 s

So, the nature of power is to protect its own status and expand its existing powers.

所以，權力的本質就是保護自己的地位，擴大現有的權力。

情態副詞

And so, power rests in an uneasy relationship with free speech because free speech is explicitly in place to allow those who don't have power to confront those in power.

是以，權力與言論自由之間的關係並不融洽，因為言論自由明確是為了讓那些沒有權力的人與掌權者對抗。

程度副詞

If you want to shine a light on abuses of government, if you want to petition politicians for change, your most important weapon really is free speech.

如果你想揭露政府的弊端，如果你想向政客請願以求改變，你最重要的武器其實就是言論自由。

But people in democracies that have benefited from free speech are losing faith in this freedom.

但是，在那些曾受益於言論自由的民主國家，人們正在失去對這種自由的信心。

Historically, free speech has not been around for that long, so it is not a right that we can take for granted, and we stand to lose a whole lot if we give up on free speech.

從歷史上看，言論自由存在的時間並不長，是以我們不能將其視為理所當然的權利，如果我們放棄言論自由，我們將失去很多。

I am the founder and executive director of The Future of Free Speech, an independent think tank at Vanderbilt University.

我是範德堡大學獨立智庫 "言論自由的未來"（The Future of Free Speech）的創始人和執行董事。

I'm also the author of the book, Free Speech, A History from Socrates to Social Media.

我還是《自由言論，從蘇格拉底到社交媒體的歷史》一書的作者。

Right now, we're living through what I would call a free speech recession.

現在，我們正經歷著一場我稱之為言論自由的衰退。

For more than 10 years, maybe approaching 15 years, free speech has been in decline.

十多年來，也許快到 15 年了，言論自由一直在衰退。

You know, there was a time around the 1990s, the early 2000s, when I think people were very bullish and optimistic about the future of free speech and democracy and saw technology as supercharging these values.

你知道，在 20 世紀 90 年代前後，也就是 21 世紀初，我認為人們對言論自由和民主的未來非常看好和樂觀，並認為技術會為這些價值觀增添動力。

But what we see is that authoritarian states have learned to reverse engineer the technology that was supposed to be liberating.

但我們看到的是，專制國家學會了對本應解放的技術進行逆向工程。

They have turned them into tools of high-tech surveillance and censorship.

他們將其變成了高科技監控和審查的工具。

And unfortunately, we even see democracies becoming more and more apprehensive about the benefits of free speech, thinking that free speech has now become a threat to democratic societies because it allows disinformation and hate speech and extremism to go viral.

不幸的是，我們甚至看到民主國家對言論自由的好處越來越憂心忡忡，認為言論自由現在已成為對民主社會的威脅，因為它讓虛假資訊、仇恨言論和極端主義大行其道。

So we take the benefits of free speech for granted, and we focus myopically on the dark sides of free speech.

是以，我們認為言論自由的好處是理所當然的，我們近視地關注言論自由的陰暗面。

And that leads us to get a skewed perception of how important free speech really is.

這讓我們對言論自由的重要性產生了錯誤的認識。

Frederick Douglass is a very, very powerful and compelling example.

弗雷德裡克-道格拉斯（Frederick Douglass）就是一個非常、非常有力和令人信服的例子。

So he's a runaway slave who, without any education, he becomes one of the nation's leading, if not the leading, orator.

是以，他是一個逃亡的奴隸，沒有受過任何教育，卻成了國家的領軍人物之一，甚至是領軍演說家。

And he uses the power of speech to convince people about the injustice of slavery.

他用演講的力量說服人們奴隸制的不公正。

Because you have to remember, if you were enslaved in the South, the First Amendment did not apply to you.

因為你必須記住，如果你在南方被奴役，第一修正案並不適用於你。

You could be beaten, you could be killed with impunity if you spoke back to your owner, or if you in any way challenged the racial hierarchy.

如果你和主人頂嘴，或者以任何方式挑戰種族等級制度，你都可能被毆打、殺害而不受懲罰。

And so if you allow someone like Frederick Douglass to expose the hypocrisy of, on the one hand, you know, having Madison and Jefferson develop these great principles, but riding them while sitting on, you know, on their porch in sweltering heat in Virginia being fanned by slaves that they owned, that makes it very, very difficult to sustain the idea of slavery in a free and open debate.

是以，如果你允許像弗雷德裡克-道格拉斯這樣的人揭露虛偽，一方面，你知道，麥迪遜和傑斐遜制定了這些偉大的原則，但騎著他們，你知道，坐在他們的門廊上，在悶熱的弗吉尼亞州，由他們擁有的奴隸扇風，這使得它非常，非常難以維持在一個自由和公開的辯論奴隸制的想法。

And people in the South knew that, and that's why they tried to suppress it.

南方的人們知道這一點，所以他們試圖壓制它。

So unlike some people today who argue that free speech is a tool to oppress and harm minorities, Frederick Douglass sees it as the other way around.

是以，與今天一些人認為言論自由是壓迫和傷害少數群體的工具不同，弗雷德裡克-道格拉斯認為這恰恰相反。

He sees free speech as a precondition for human equality, especially for the oppressed.

他認為言論自由是人類平等，尤其是被壓迫者平等的先決條件。

What I think is a particularly important aspect of free speech is to say that there should be no viewpoint discrimination.

我認為言論自由的一個特別重要的方面是，不應有觀點歧視。

The government cannot punish people for expressing specific viewpoints, however abhorrent.

政府不能因為人們表達了特定的觀點而懲罰他們，無論這些觀點多麼令人憎惡。

There's an important historical lesson in a case called Brandenburg versus Ohio.

在勃蘭登堡訴俄亥俄州一案中，有一個重要的歷史教訓。

Clarence Brandenburg, standing in KKK regalia, was speaking into a camera, and he was making thinly veiled threats against Blacks and Jews, saying that if the government didn't do something about these groups, well, they might take action into their own hands.

身著三K黨禮服的克拉倫斯-布蘭登伯格（Clarence Brandenburg）正在對著攝影機講話，他對黑人和猶太人發出了隱晦的威脅，稱如果政府不對這些群體採取一些措施，那麼他們可能會自己採取行動。

And he was convicted under an Ohio law, but the Supreme Court rejected the argument.

他是根據俄亥俄州的一項法律被定罪的，但最高法院駁回了這一論點。

One of the Supreme Court justices in that case was Thurgood Marshall.

該案的最高法院法官之一是瑟古德-馬歇爾。

Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American Supreme Court justice.

瑟古德-馬歇爾是第一位非裔美國人最高法院法官。

He had done more than most to fight for racial equality against segregation.

在反對種族隔離、爭取種族平等方面，他比大多數人做得更多。

So he was not upholding the rights of Clarence Brandenburg, someone who would, if he had power, take away all the rights that Thurgood Marshall had fought for.

是以，他並沒有維護克拉倫斯-布蘭登伯格的權利，如果他有權力的話，他會剝奪瑟古德-馬歇爾為之奮鬥的所有權利。

But he saw that defending free speech, even for your enemies, is essential for minorities and for freedom and equality to thrive.

但他看到，捍衛言論自由，甚至是捍衛敵人的言論自由，對於少數群體以及自由和平等的蓬勃發展至關重要。

I think you're doing minorities a disservice if, by law, you protect them even against hateful speech.

我認為，如果你依法保護少數群體，甚至讓他們免受仇恨言論的傷害，那就是對少數群體的傷害。

Now, there's still a lot you can do with speech to defend minorities.

現在，你仍然可以通過言論來保護少數群體。

I think that's a much stronger way to demonstrate that you loathe an idea rather than having the police come and arrest them, because you often risk making a martyr out of those that you want to silence.

我認為，這比讓警察來逮捕他們更能表明你厭惡某種觀點，因為你往往會冒著讓那些你想壓制的人成為烈士的風險。

作為一個物種，我們已經走過了漫長的道路。

We can collaborate in ways that no other species can, achieving magnificent things.

我們能以其他物種無法企及的方式開展合作，取得輝煌成就。

但我們也能做出非常殘忍的事情。

We're also capable of being extremely delusional.

And you need free speech to challenge those sides of ourselves, our narrow-mindedness.

你需要自由言論來挑戰我們的這些方面，挑戰我們的狹隘。

So I think a resilient culture of free speech is one where a critical mass of people in a given society recognizes and values tolerance of ideas they vehemently disagree with.

是以，我認為，一個有韌性的言論自由文化是指在特定社會中，有足夠多的人承認並重視對他們強烈反對的觀點的寬容。

And that when we do have disagreement about first principles, we try to accommodate them and solve them through speech rather than violence.

當我們在第一原則上出現分歧時，我們要儘量通過言論而不是暴力來解決。