Free Speech. A surprisingly touchy subject in our modern America. The right to say whatever you want, about whatever, and to whoever is something that Americans take for granted each day. Through protests and marches on Washington to the very text you just sent, American citizens have been given this right from our Founding Fathers in order to protect them and their right to expression.

Today, however, American citizens have seemed to have forgotten exactly what free speech is. A Far-Left ideal called “Hate Speech” has made a recent appearance in our media. Hate Speech is any speech that would be decided harmful, offensive, or directly meant to hurt someone, especially when aimed at a minority group. Racism, Islamophobia, and other “-isms” fall under this category.

The Far-Left has been pushing for laws and restriction on free speech, saying that people should be jailed or fined for incorrectly using someone’s pronouns, or threatening remarks towards a certain racial group.

The problem with this is hate speech — no matter how offensive — is still free speech. Just because someone has offended you or intentionally said something to upset you doesn’t mean they need to be fined for it or go to jail. Sure, it might hurt your feelings and it doesn’t always make what they said OK, but they still have the right to say it regardless of the statements’ nature.

People could go into buildings and scream “fire.” They have the right to say that, but they also cause a public panic and that’s what can land them in handcuffs. People could miss-gender you on purpose. It might be upsetting and hurt that they don’t respect you, but they still have the right to say it. Doesn’t make it OK, but they still can say it.

America is unique in that we have written in our constitution that we have the right to say whatever we want. Other countries, such as Canada, don’t have such laws and can be sentenced to jail/fined for incorrectly using someone’s pronouns whether they mean it or not. It might be offensive, it might be insensitive, but they can still say it in the United States.

That is what free speech is all about. Speech with no restrictions and no exceptions. The ability to speak your mind. If we start banning certain words and phrases, where does the line get drawn? To some people a poorly timed joke might make them incredibly upset, and try to press charges against someone who had no idea what they were doing. Something that is offensive to one person might not be to another, and the lines get blurry on what would then be defined as “hate speech.”

People do intentionally say things to hurt other people in America. It happens on both sides of the political spectrum, and there’s no excuse to it. However, they still have the right to say what they want. It can be hurtful, disrespectful, and flat out degrading, but it is our core value as a nation to share thoughts and opinions.

As soon as we forget the core values of our freedom of speech, we will begin to lose sight of everything else we hold dear in the United States.