Free speech is also the right to say ‘Just shut up’

Here’s an age-old adage that has lasted the test of time: ‘‘If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all.’’ It’s funny to think how so many cranky old rhetoricians have failed to grasp this basic kindergarten lesson.

If they had, then I imagine the Free Speech Coalition supporters would now be $50,000 better off (although, I doubt they need the money).

Instead of wasting their time protecting racist speakers, the likes of Don Brash and Chris Trotter could have been doing something useful. Ironically, they could have been proving to us the importance of free speech.

You see, the best way to defend free speech is by saying something worth listening to.

Want proof? Just think back to your last meeting, or lecture. There was that guy, on some cringeworthy spout about goodness knows what. He was completely off topic, borderline offensive and pushing this meeting ever closer to lunching hour. What did you wish you could shout at that moment? I bet it was, ‘‘Shut up, you idiot’’.

Maybe you did, and you silenced him right then and there. Kabam! Speech interrupted.

And who could blame you? That guy, holding up everyone with some nonsense about how life used to be, or the issue with identity politics, wasn’t helping anyone.

This is the key to free speech: when you feel the urge to scream your thoughts to the world, you should really think, ‘‘Is this helping anyone?’’

Sure, even when you’ve got something stupid to say, you’re still able to say it. Even those racist Canadians – one of whom tried to stop heroes from rescuing migrants – are free to upload videos to YouTube. They’re free to stand on street corners and yell, which I support.

However, I vehemently support anyone who wants to tell people saying dumb stuff to shut up (or, to get out of a council-run venue). If you aren’t saying anything helpful, no matter what the situation, it’s always a good idea to be quiet.

When you listen to enough Newstalk ZB or read too many online comments, you start to hear a lot of incredibly unhelpful vitriol.

The outgoing Newstalk host Leighton Smith, for one, has an unusual fascination with toilets and masculinity. He once read a poem about what it is to be a ‘‘true man’’. And he enjoys hosting longwinded conversations about the rights and wrongs of allowing transgender students to use their chosen bathroom.

He’s not alone in voicing his concerns about people unlike him being made to feel comfortable. The issue is, such valiant defenders of old-time norms aren’t helping anyone. They are simply defending the right to discriminate for the sake of it.

Unlike the PC brigade they so predictably detest, conservative demagogues cannot even claim to be speaking for the benefit of anyone other than themselves. Instead, far too many of these socalled free speech champions use their very large platforms to protect their own comforts. They’ll rally to allow racists the right to stand in a hall, and they’ll shout down suggestions that we could build more unisex loos.

These arguments are damaging. They help nothing, apart from concreting the status quo.

To say it is justifiable, for instance, to refuse to make a wedding cake for a gay couple is to suggest there is something wrong with their sexuality, which there is not.

And to stigmatise and exclude the transgender community is honestly despicable. By doing so, some commentators are leveraging their platforms to further disparage people already facing obscene prejudice and troubles.

YIt just seems cruel to use your power of free speech to make life harder for those already up against it.

ou’d think they would want to do the opposite. It seems a good idea to look not only to your own interests, but to the interests of others – and that’s not me being a latte-sipping leftie, that’s me quoting the Bible (Philippians 2:4).

Even the most conservative of doctrines seems to know good speech from bad. It’s not a hard concept to grasp.

It just seems cruel to use your power of free speech to make life harder for those already up against it. It seems like an instance when someone should get up and say: ‘‘Please, just shut up and listen!’’

Because, even though we all have a right to think whatever we want, sometimes it’s best if we just hold back a few moments before voicing our intolerant and unhelpful opinions. That way, we don’t end up defending racists and brutalising people for no fault of their own.

It can be good to just wait until you’ve got something nice to say.