Commentary
It is somewhat unsettling to discover that no matter how fervently we believe in something, others believe differently. Perhaps more frustratingly, we soon discover that our interlocutors are as passionate about their beliefs as we are about ours and have sound reasons for believing as they do.
This is why free speech is the lifeblood of democracy. The democratic norm is a marketplace of ideas where contested issues are resolved not through force or violence but through conversations in parliaments. Democrats respect the views of others, even when such views are anathema to their own. In a democracy, citizens are treated like adults, as thinking, informed agents capable of arriving at their own conclusions. This is why freedom of expression is critical to the health and vitality of the democratic polity….