Trigger Warning: Is the Fear of Being Offensive Killing Free Speech

(Paperback, Abridged Concise edition)

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Concise and Abridged Edition

Do 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 Guardian
In a fierce defence of free speech in all its forms Mick Humes 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 wasnt 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.

Reviews

SuperbThis is a first-rate polemic and the most important political book of the year so far Rod Liddle

This is an important book, and couldnt be more timely. Its 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 its 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

Author Bio

Mick Hume is a journalist and author. He is editor-at-large of Spiked and writes regularly on free-speech issues. He had a weekly column in The Times for 10 years, and was described as Britains only libertarian Marxist newspaper columnist. More recently he has written in defence of freedom of speech and a free press in The Times, the Sunday Times, the Independent and the Sun.