Freedom of speech

Freedom of speech. Is there a limit? Where should we draw the line?

I'm looking back to a specific blogpost by a swedish author (Carina Rydberg, afraid I can not find any information on her in english) that upset my quite a bit. The blogpost, which is in swedish, is essentially Carina writing about wanting to close down a swedish forum that considers itself being one of the last places on the web where there's absolute freedom of speech. She claims to have found links to pornography featuring children. Therefore she has filed complaints and wishes the site would be taken off the internet. Now, I've been active reader and poster on Flashback since 2008 and has never seen any links to child pornography. Of course, there are pedophiles on the forum but there is no trading links or videos being performed through the forum. They are all just regular people, like me, with the exception that they get sexually aroused by children. They can get aroused by whomever or whatever they want, as long as it doesn't affect anyone. Pedophiles do not necessarily kidnap and rape children. That's only a very, very small percentage of the total amount of pedophiles. Unfortunately they are the only ones that get any kind exposure in the media, since they will inevitably sell. The pedophiles who are really struggling with it, and feel really bad about it, only gets to hear shitstorm "regular" people send their way. Yet I digress... back to the blogpost and the matter at hand. Anyway, Carina ends with the sentence "Because there are limits to freedom of speech as well".

Now that specific sentence makes me think. Is there? Is it freedom if there is a limit to it? I would say we've got freedom under responsibility decided by our country's respective laws. If one country says it's illegal to spread pornography then you do not spread it. But if something doesn't clearly doesn't violate any laws, should we still let go unsaid if it may offend someone? Generally I'd say go for it. Speak your mind. That's what I'll be doing. If something annoys me I'll comment it and try to make a change. I don't really care who stands in my way. If I have to respect their opinion they have to respect mine, right?

Offending people is a grey area. Like the great australian comedian Steve Hughes says "Being offended is subjective and has everything to do with you as individual, or a collective, or a group, or a society, or a community, your moral conditioning, your religious beliefs, what offends me might not offend you." Link
So essentially whatever you say might offend someone. Steve Hughes saying that "what offends me might not offend you" might offend someone who, for some reason that fits my example, believes that what offends them offends everyone else. Is worrying about what will, and what will not, offend people really the correct use of our brain?

No! Who cares if someone gets offended?! And why do people spend so much time focusing on being offended? Why not do something constructive instead of just whining about being offended? Apparently Carina Rydberg  was offended by the whole idea of Flashback. I do not see what's so wrong with a place where you can freely discuss drugs, music, art, poetry, politics, philosophy, pornography, mathematics, science etc. etc without changing your website? You can find every kind of person on Flashback. Someone who is a professor in math might just enjoy discussing or reading about marijuana in his free time? Maybe he or she enjoys smoking it every now and then? Maybe he/she is very against all drugs? I personally believe that that kind of freedom, all in one place, is one of the greatest treasures. On Flashback I've got the right to express my opinion, share my knowledge and learn about whatever I may want at that time. And the mods at Flashback do try to keep the forum clean of childpornography, some I can vouch for. In my 2 years of daily use I've never even once encountered anything even remotely close to pornography depicting underaged people engaging in coitus, or posing in a "sexual way". Never. And I sincerely doubt that it will happen.

Over and out.