do we really have freedom of speech?
so, i live in the nation that is the poster boy for the freedom of speech. is there a nation that is better known for the freedom of speech better than USA? i initially thought america was the first country to embody this beautiful principle, but turns out it wasn't. apparently, greek (not surprising given that this likely influenced the influential philosophy that developed as a result) and england passed the right to freedom of speech before america was founded. but, it would be hard to argue that there is a nation more well known for this.
i can say things in this country that would get me killed or arrested in other countries like the country where i was born from (Bangladesh). for e.g i was born a muslim, but i later denounced the religion (today i'm neither traditionally muslim nor atheist, but lets not focus on this in this post). if i tried to renounce islam in bangladesh, my family would have disowned me. i would be kicked out by my own family and village. my imprisonment nor death would not be prevented because if i wasn't muslim, it would mean i'm a follower of the devil or a bad person. from thatbinary perspective, it makes sense of course. so yes, legally speaking USA absolutely does grant far for freedom of speech than other nations and far more religious and social tolerance and freedom. while america is known for being the land of oppurtunities which, while true, i argue that freedom to practice your religion (or not to) is a substantial child node of the freedom of speech because religious beliefs and practices have made up the entire model of how humans viewed and went about their life for millenniums and still do today.
america's freedom of speech is something that would be glaringly obvious to you if you lived countries with very little freedom of speech and then lived in America. this is absolutely one of my favorite things about America. frankly i would rather starve in america than be a wealthy, but perceived enemy of society in another nation.
even in america though, there isn't really freedom of speech in the way we think there is. freedom of speech may exist legally for the most part, but not so much in practice. so let's explore what freedom of speech really means. we'll start with the edge cases that we unconsciously accept.