#constructive criticism is good – @cordeliaistheone on Tumblr

I know Moff's (mostly!) joking but Dean Leysen answered an Ask the other day about this kind of thing and I think it's interesting to add here:

Should freedom of speech, so long as the information is factual and therefore of social utility, be absolute?

I think people are often too quick to judge something as censorship or as violating their freedom of speech, actually. Sure, freedom of speech is important, just as freedom of religion is important, but when you start using offensive language or try to be verbally abusive to other people, and get punished for it, that’s not against freedom of speech, that’s ‘for’ being decent human beings. So many times have I seen people’s posts or threads locked on forums because they for instance called a disabled person a “f***ing retard” or started slinging racial slurs or random insults, only to then come crying that they’ve been censored. Freedom of speech is about being allowed the ability to have and state your opinion, but it doesn’t imply that other people need to tolerate being attacked for example, or that you can get away with anything. In that sense I don’t think it should be ‘absolute’ but it should be reasoned, it should be sensible, based on equality and empathy at the same time.

Reminds me of what Caitlin Moran says in 'How to Be a Woman' re "political correctness gone mad", saying "political correctness" is just "formalised politeness".

Back to Moff though, I wish he'd listen to CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, because as much as I love him and think he's brilliant, he really is ignorant about some important things.