Despite how the 21st century could be seen as a symbol of transformation its inhabitants still eerily seem to be content with how our freedom of speech is being phased out day-by-day in typical Marty McFly fashion. Though you may be rolling your eyes at your computer at this regurgitated message of how hard done by us snowflakes are I implore you to just give me a chance.

I’m not going to waste the time that you have gifted to me by preaching the same miserable message about how minorities are treated because I think we’re all well acquainted with the knowledge. The issue I have is how seemingly undesirable opinions are shunned and looked at with disgust despite how willing we are to encourage society to move past these oppressive methods.

To us youngsters it may seem medieval that some people still stand by their views in an unwavering way and to those individuals it may seem ridiculous how easy it is for young people to change what they think simply because it’s trendy. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t discourage either behaviour because I’m guilty of displaying both from time to time. However, this fundamental difference is what provides society with the building materials to manufacture that bridge between the generations.

Not only this, our trend dominated society could come across as slightly oppressive to the people that we are labelling as ‘from the dark ages’ and could even prevent them from expressing themselves freely which is the exact opposite of what we are trying to promote. Though we may not agree with them, we need to hear them out otherwise we’re just silencing them. And silencing is not the same as causing social change.

To combat this, what we need to do is have calm and open minded conversations with the people that harness these undesirable opinions. There was once a time where freedom of something as primitive as sexuality was shunned but we climbed out of that rut because we approached it in a loving and non-aggressive way. The problem that is preventing freedom of speech may not be physically aggressive but it is the emotional distress that accompanies having to suppress a basic right that could be detrimental.

In order to move on and reach a compromise as a society, we need to be able to listen to each other rather than censoring people that are equally as important in the development of the social world.