“Freedom of speech does not mean lack of responsibility” Noam Chomsky

After reading the Chomsky interview “I Don’t look at Twitter because It Doesn’t Tell me Anything” I can’t stop thinking about his statement about freedom of the speech and that it doesn’t equals a lack of responsibility.

But freedom of speech does not mean a lack of responsibility. So for

example, I’m in favour of freedom of speech, but if somebody

decided to put up a big advertisement in Times Square, New York,

glorifying the sending of Jews to gas chambers, I don’t think it should

be stopped by the state, but I’m not in favour of it.

I started to question myself if I agree with his statement or not. At first I thought he was right, the state cannot shut down the public expression of an opinion. That is the very definition of freedom of speech. But his example about a glorifying ad for sending the Jews to gas chamber not stopped by the state doesn’t sit well with me. Maybe it’s because I’m German, maybe it’s because of my political orientation.

I think everyone should have a right to have an opinion about certain topics and the state is responsible to provide the kind of education for everyone to be able to form opinions, but some things just cannot be publicly said without consequences. By no means I think we should pretend there are no longer people in the world who are racists and think sending Jews or black people or disabled people into gas chambers is an option, but out of respect for the people who were affected by Nazi Germany an ad like that is not on.

I think the real responsibility of a state relating to freedom of speech is to assure that people are able to form an opinion and know whether you should speak out against something or not.