The tendency of people wielding government power to forget that they are fallible is one of the inevitable ways in which power corrupts.  This is why freedom of thought and speech are so important to democracy. A democratic government is an adversarial system which depends for its legitimacy and functioning on the “marketplace of ideas,” not on undisputed consensus. 

Unlike systems such as the one-party Chinese government, democracy embraces the messy way that people like to disagree with each other. Why?  Because Enlightenment ideas on how human mental processes work and the universal fallibility of these processes are the basis of modern democracy.  The scientific method was developed to deal with the biases, misperceptions, and other ways in which people fail to gain knowledge and so improve their conditions.  But this fallibility was also seen as an essential part of how humans obtain  knowledge, i.e., through doubt, trial and error, experimentation, and self-correction.  This method made every proposition subject to scrutiny and duplication of results, but also took full advantage of the free-roving thoughts and ideas native to every person.  The result: incredible advances in knowledge and technology over a very short period of human history.

The ideas on which the U.S. democracy are based emerged from the same inquiries into human understanding as the scientific method.  People were seen as being created equal in terms of their mental processes and their fallibility.  Democracy was the form of government able to most fully exploit those processes.  All people were given the responsibility, through the vote, of both choosing their rulers and keeping their rulers from abusing power.  To fulfill this responsibility, they needed freedom of speech (and the press) so as to properly evaluate those people temporarily acting as government. Freedom of speech also ensured the greatest potential for improving conditions by allowing each person to think for himself and to express his ideas.  As a result, the U.S. became a world leader in science, technology, and living conditions.

Like the scientific method, freedom of thought and speech allows people to make great progress for three reasons.  First, every person is free to come up with new ideas or solutions to problems and to put these ideas before others.  Second, everyone can argue with, criticize, doubt, and scrutinize any idea.  This allows an idea’s weaknesses or errors to be spotted and exposed.  Third, becoming aware of errors or weaknesses makes possible corrections, refinements, or improvements.  Human beings, by the very nature of the way their minds work, will always be coming up with new ideas, with questions, or with doubts, and this is the way they move forward.

Examples abound throughout history of societies falling into error or stagnation, because they did not allow freedom of thought and speech.  These examples include the error of burning people at the stake for refusing to believe in a religious doctrine or the error in thinking that diseases are caused by demons.

Currently in the U.S., speech concerning fraud in the recent election is being actively suppressed and punished by government and others holding nongovernmental power.  Not only is this contrary to freedom of speech, but the suppression concerns something which is an essential element of democracy: the validity of the vote.  No democratic government should hesitate to fully address questions about the voting process.  All evidence should be brought forward and scrutinized so that the truth can be established in a proper manner and all doubt put to rest.

Refusing to do so and restricting speech on this subject sets a regressive precedent.  So much is lost without freedom of speech:  errors can remain hidden and so unable to be corrected.  Ideas become monolithic when unexposed to scrutiny, debate and doubt.  New ideas will be less likely to emerge when there is fear of punishment for speaking.  Instead of moving towards greater knowledge, without free speech a society stews in its own ignorance.

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