Description
Book SynopsisConcise and Abridged EditionDo we really have the right to say the wrong' thing?I strongly recommend this book. Hume is right that the current proliferation of trigger warnings is absurd' GuardianIn a fierce defence of free speech in all its forms Mick Hume's blistering polemic exposes the new threats facing us today in the historic fight for freedom of expression. In 2015, the cold-blooded attacks in Paris on the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists united the free-thinking world in proclaiming Je suis Charlie'. But it wasn't long before many were arguing that the massacres showed the need to restrict the right to be offensive. Meanwhile sensitive students are sheltered from potentially offensive material and Twitter vigilantes police those expressing the wrong' opinion. But the basic right being suppressed to be offensive, despite the problems it creates is not only acceptable but vital to society. Without a total freedom of expression, other liberties will not be possible.
Trade Review‘Superb…This is a first-rate polemic and the most important political book of the year so far’ Rod Liddle
‘This is an important book, and couldn’t be more timely. It’s strong-minded, unafraid, determined to knock down all the various specious arguments against free speech, unapologetic about insisting on the value of free expression, and terrifically well argued. In these weak-minded times it’s good to have so uncompromising a defence’ Salman Rushdie
‘What this book does tremendously is pull off the neat trick of summing up just what the hell is going on out there on the great frontiers of speech, offence, liberty and people shouting at each other’ The Times
