“If Liberty Means Anything at All, It Means the Right to Tell People What They Do Not Want to Hear”
That is something that everybody knows. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees Americans free speech. It reads, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech or of the press…” This implies that in a democratic society, individuals must be permitted to criticize the government and express their ideas and beliefs freely.
The Supreme Court has stated that the right to freedom of expression is “the matrix, the essential condition, of nearly every other sort of liberty.” The government cannot censor you under free speech laws. It does not imply that others must listen to you. To put it another way: Free speech does not necessarily imply forced listening. People are free to say stupid things, and I am free not to listen to them, according to one blogger.