Is Advocating Against Gossip Infringing On Free Speech?

Is Advocating Against Gossip Infringing On Free Speech?

The impact of harmful gossip can be devastating. It can cause irreparable damage, pain, and suffering - even suicide.

A teenage St. Louis girl committed suicide after receiving cruel messages from a fake online identity. The online harassment was a hoax, but a teenager's life ended because of the brutal rumors and comments of others.

A 16 yr. Old boy from Tennessee killed himself after discovering that messages he exchanged with another boy had been shared on social media by classmates who wanted to humiliate and embarrass him.

A gentleman in Seattle drove off a bridge and ended his life after false rumors spread about him throughout his workplace, robbing him of his reputation, his job, and his family.

Many churches—once thriving places of worship, kindness, and love—have crumbled and closed their doors due to gossip among their congregants and pastors.

Families across the globe are estranged because of gossip.

These are just a few of the many tragic stories with endings resulting from gossip, the misuse of words, and the effects of words.

And, of course, we are all too familiar with the constant barrage of negativity and toxicity, the mudslinging and finger-pointing from the media and fake news.

GOSSIP and FREE SPEECH

Despite the damage that gossip can cause, many people still feel that eliminating it is like eliminating our right to freedom of speech.

When our Founding Fathers added free speech to the Constitution, enabling people to harm their fellow man or their reputation and dignity was not what they had in mind. They were concerned with giving citizens the ability to exercise their right to speak out against the government - not who they think the biggest jerk on campus is, who cheated on whom, childish name-calling, and spreading vicious gossip and rumors to manipulate one's opinion of another.

NOBODY'S FRIEND

Gossip has no respect for justice. It maims without killing. It breaks hearts and ruins lives. It’s cunning and malicious and gathers strength with age. The more it’s quoted, the more it’s believed. Its victims are helpless. They cannot protect themselves against it because it has no name or face. To track it down is impossible. The harder you try, the more elusive it becomes. Gossip is nobody’s friend. Once it tarnishes a reputation, it is never the same. Gossip topples governments and wrecks marriages. It ruins careers and causes sleepless nights and heartaches. Even the mention of its name hisses.

EXPRESS YOURSELF RESPONSIBLY

We cannot support free speech without recognizing its power to harm others.

'Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you' is manifestly untrue. Words matter.

We can exercise our rights to free speech but must strive to do so in purposeful, respectful, and productive ways that do not include spreading hate, gossip, rumors, and tearing others down. The latter serves no productive or positive purpose. We can support free speech while aspiring to create a better world run on more positive language where differences are embraced, people are dignified, and individuality is celebrated. Unity is far more attainable with this mindset.

We can embrace our freedom to share knowledge and ideas, protest respectfully, and express our opinions responsibly while simply being more mindful of our words.

ADVOCATE for kindness

We can advocate for and support free speech, but we should not advocate for and support hurting people, their reputations, and their lives. To advocate against harmful gossip is to advocate for kindness, compassion, human decency, peace, and unity.

It is worth noting that kindness and compassion are not partisan values; they are universal, compassion being the greatest virtue in all major world traditions.

If we spread positivity, compassion, and kindness as quickly as we spread negativity, judgment, and gossip, our lives would undoubtedly be far more productive and enhanced - individually and collectively. And who doesn't want that?

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