I think one of the most important things in any civilised society is the freedom to express your opinions. This will certainly mean there are people out there who have opinions that are diametrically opposite to your own. Some of these opinions may even cause you offence.
Tough.
If a person has such an opinion, debate with them, engage with them, expose the fallacies in their arguments. prove your own point.
The one thing that should not be done is to censor their opinions.
Once you have to resort to such censorship, you have lost the argument. It shows that you have no coherent points to prove them wrong. Censorship is the last resort of someone who cannot win an argument.
And we do seem to be becoming more censorious as time passes. A person can post a message on Twitter, and if it's not what is deemed to be the "correct" opinion of the day, there is a massive scope for abuse, threats, and demands that their account is banned. People have been arrested, and taken to court, for saying something deemed incorrect.
This cannot happen.
It is a slide towards a state where we are afraid to even open our mouth lest what comes out be not the right opinion. Yes, if someone says something you deem to be wrong, challenge it. Debate it. Etc.
But the right to express that opinion? That must be held as a cornerstone of a civilised society...
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