"No experiment can be more interesting than that we are no trying,
which we trust will end in establishing the fact that man may be governed by reason and truth.
the most effectual hitherto found is the freedom of the press.
It is therefore the first to shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.
the firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press,
the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood shew that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false
& to form a correct judgement between them."
Thomas Jefferson
Typical Jeffersonian naievty. Who will guarantee the behaviour of the press? In our time the Western press, with its culture of leftist and secularist group think, simply cannot be relied on to allow the full flowering of alternative views without the individual expressing those views being lambasted as sexist, racist, homophobe, extremist etc etc. Unfortunately the press is frequently usedto close down civil debates by asserting that their is only one view which does not offend others and which is to be privileged above all others. Jefferson's fine ideal does not escape the reality of human nature.
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