Berkley and the suppression of free expression

With more Berkley riots I felt compelled to change focus from what I was writing. Whilst I don't agree with alt-right ideology I firmly believe people have the right to congregate, form political ideals and express themselves. Einstein said "In any successful debate you have 2 parties entering with a thesis and antithesis, if successful they come out with a synthesis". Only in good debate can you develop new ideas and that's what the political landscape needs. New ideas not violent clashes between 2 old and useless politics. Both of which have a history of failure at the cost of peoples lives, be it the fascist regimes of the 30s and 40s to the many failed socialist experiments in Russia, China, North Korea or Cuba.

Further irony is groups often needing the right to free expression like communists and anarchists fighting free expression, burning posters reminiscent of free expression protests from the 60s and inciting violence against those who oppose them. I will have no sympathy for those injured inciting violence in an attempt to suppress free expression.

In the 30s the brown shirts arose because Nazi meetings and rallies were regularly attacked like we've seen at Berkley. This gave the Nazis a sense that they had to defend themselves, this is what we're seeing at pro-Trump rallies with alt-right and 'the proud boys' arming up ready to fight. These things will only escalate to proactive attacks on opposition, if people don't learn to discuss we will see extreme violence like shootings and bombings.

This can be resolved peacefully, through debate and discussion. The opposing sides have common ground they can start at, working out from there they can educate each other on what the opposite is wrong about and come out with the synthesis Einstein talked about. That is what free expression is needed for, the ability to say what you think and for it to be explained why you're wrong. Without it we develop a climate of ignorance and fear, but maybe that's what people want, a fearful and ignorant populace, easier to control, manipulate and trigger.