Why Do Stupid People Get to Have an Opinion?

Nowadays, with the rise of increasingly polarizing, if not absolutely hateful, opinions pervading our Twitter feeds, timelines, and family dinners, many of us wish for a day where these ugly views would just die off and never again see the light of day. No matter the political alignment, a certain line is inevitably crossed for all when the discourse from the other side seems so absolutely intolerably wrong in every way imaginable. To make it worse, why must this other side, so determined in their lust to trample all over your very well-informed and verifiably correct opinion, be so loud, insulting, and inconsiderate? Why can’t we simply imprison these parasitic beliefs with their hosts and allow them to wither away in a certain obscurity?

I would invite us to consider the words of the 19th century philosopher and political thinker John Stuart Mill, an advocate for liberty, diversity and progress as means toward a greater human flourishing and happiness. Mill, in his essay On Liberty, provides us with one of the greatest arguments for allowing those so seemingly invalid the right to practice their freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Famously, Mill wrote “If all mankind minus one, were of one…