rowan atkinson on free speech

“Although the law and the discussion has been on the statute book for over 25 years, it is indicative of a culture that has taken hold of the programs of successive governments, that with a reasonable and well intentioned ambition to contain obnoxious elements in society has created a society of an extraordinarily authoritarian and controlling nature. That is what you might call the ‘new intolerance’: A new and intense desire to gag uncomfortable voices of descent.

I am not intolerant, say many people. Say many softly spoken, highly educated, liberal minded poeple.
I’m only intolerant of intolerance. [...] But thinking about this for more than 5 seconds make you realize that all it is advocating is replacing one kind of intolerance with another. Underlying prejudices and justices or resentments are not addressed by arresting people, they are addressed with by the issues being aired, argued and dealt with, preferably outside of the legal process.

For me, the best way to increase society’s resistance to insulting or offensive speech is to allow a lot more of it.”