Open Ideas is a project to reframe freedom of speech by returning to the
philosophical foundations that first justified it.
In the 2020s, discussion of free speech is dominated by dogmatic slogans like
“freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences”, yet thinkers from
Milton to Mill argued the opposite: that silencing expression through social
punishment is as destructive as censorship by government. Mill called this the
“tyranny of the majority” — society’s power to enforce conformity, leaving no
escape and extinguishing even inner freedom.
With the explosion of speech in the digital age, it is urgent to recover the
original purpose of free expression — not merely to guard individuals, but to
keep ideas open for the sake of human progress.