The flip side of free speech is that there is no government board that will keep your gate for you. It’s our own responsibility to make sure we’re steeped in more good ideas than bad ones.
Although the best antidote to bad speech is better speech, it doesn’t mean you have to hear out every awful idea, rebut every faulty argument, wade deep into every cesspool and try to clean it out.
The same is true of art. In our worst moods, so many of us focus on what music we dislike, how the good stuff doesn’t get a fair shake, how apparently, no one but us cares enough about what really matters, or supports what’s really important.
Of course, every moment we spend complaining about what other people are doing wrong is a moment we are not spending in support of what’s really important. It’s a moment that we’re not appreciating or creating or advancing better alternatives. It’s a moment spent being what we wouldn’t want to become.