

So decades ago I worked at a bike shop and some college students came in. One of them was black, everyone else in the shop was white. She sat down on a bike, that was all black with dark grey lettering. And I said “this bike looks great, I love the black on black look.” Everyone looked at me funny, she immediately got off the bike, and i literally died inside and froze up.
20 years later and i still think about this.
Also I should note that it was not the first time I used that phrase for that bike - when you work sales you end up with little automatic narratives that you barely think about.







Making it illegal to voice certain opinions only pushes them underground. Ideas and ideology will fester if they only exist in a secluded echo chamber. Allow people the freedom to say anything in public, and let their ideas be tested in the light of open discourse. I’d rather nazis say their shit out loud so that they can be identified, and duly ridiculed. Impressionable people can watch and see how the nazi gets shat on in public.
Most importantly, freedom of speech must be universally applied, without exception, to prevent both the uprising of shitty ideas and the suppression of good ideas.
Edit: typo