Freedom of speech and political correctness

We all have a preconception of freedom of speech. And we all support it as a concept which is part of democracy.

However, we very easily criticize people and are ready to limit their freedom with political correctness. We are free to say whatever we please unless we offend someone.  Everything sounds logical until we stop to think that people are offended or “triggered” by different things.

How far is political correctness a roundabout way to censor? For example, the notorious director Lars von Trier got banned from the Cannes Film Festival because he said that he understands the Nazis. We might disagree with what he said but is that a reason to ban him from an artistic event?

He handled the situation with the only way he saw fit: he made a film. The quite scandalous film of von Trier is about society, its norms and expectations. And of course he included a dialogue about freedom of speech and democracy.

“Each time a word becomes prohibited you remove a stone from the democratic foundation. Society demonstrates its impotency to face a concrete problem by removing words from the language”, his main character says.

This got me thinking about freedom of speech in general in relation to political correctness and social problems. Recently, in Cyprus we had an incident that reminded me of this dialogue. A boat full of illegal immigrants from Syria was rescued by the Cypriot authorities. While the press was covering the incident, the journalists were cautioned not to use certain terms to describe these people.

Nevertheless, no one should be offended if we call them Syrians or illegal immigrants or refugees because they are aptly described by all these words. I believe that we satisfy ourselves by ignoring real problems—in this case the fact that hundreds of people had to flee from their homes and jeopardize their safety and health—to deal with insignificant marginal issues, namely how we should call them.

Is Lars von Trier right, then? Is society cowardly, impotent and too stupid for democracy?