Freedom of speech.

So recently Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away, and it was a huge moment for the whole of Singapore to go through. And in light of this event, a teenage boy posted a video on Youtube expressing his opinions about Singapore's former prime minister and Christianity. The video went viral, he's in trouble with the law, and it's starting to get really, really annoying.

First of all. There are so many people out there who are just like this teenage boy- using social media to express offensive opinions and statements. So who's to say there will never be people like that in Singapore? Correct me if I'm wrong, but in Singapore, the one thing that applies to majority of the laws is that you can do whatever weird thing you want, as long as it doesn't involve murder and you do it in the privacy of your own home. From what I've read online, it seems like Singapore just doesn't want you to go around spreading your weird shit to others. Like you can walk around your house naked for all I care, just close the damn doors and draw the curtains.

So there. Everyone has their opinions, right or wrong, let them have it, but don't let their offensive opinions spark fires, start shitstorms, and get followers.

Recently in my Pillars of Life module, the lecturer made me realize something I never really thought about before. She was talking about the different generations and what kind of people they were, and then she got down to Generation Y, which is us. And the description for our generation was that we were the most likely to change the world by being the most influential. Thanks to social media.

And I could see that- we're finally doing something about racism, sexism and basically freedom and equality in general. All because we're spending so much time on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Youtube. To think we were making jokes about wasting our lives on the internet- we might even be able to change it.

So yes. Freedom of speech. Does it exist? No. Is that a good thing? Kinda. But you know what will be really cool? Having the freedom of speech but being able to filter out the useless, negative stuff until it becomes unacceptable. I say useless because when I get into a debate with someone, I encourage disagreements. Friendly, proper, mature disagreements. Basically the ones with a logical/reasonable explanation and not just a simple "No" and topped off with pathetic irrelevant insults.

I wonder if we can actually change the world, and how long it'll take.