Judge, we must....

Related to modern vice of moderation, one other common fallacy of modern age is “Since X is free to act in any way, we can not judge” or alternatively “What X does is his business, therefore we have no right to question”.

This is pure drivel. You are free to say anything as long as it is not against law of land, but it doesn’t excuse you from fair analysis.

Freedom of Speech is not immunity from criticism.

In fact as I said in a previous post that if freedom has to have any meaning, it must be accompanied by social values.

This is because freedom by itself does nothing; it just provides a medium for transaction of ideas. Just because one is free to say something and says it, doesn’t automatically translate into validity of that idea, in other words there is no merit at that time. In order to validate the idea it should be subjected to investigation.

The merit of the idea is the social acceptance (if the idea is valid) or censure (if the idea is invalid). The idea is, bad ideas will go away. This in effect is the only criteria to filter out bad ideas from good ideas.

So am I saying that what society says is always true?
No, society judges according to established norms, if the norms themselves are flawed, it essentially means that judgment more likely than not will be flawed.

Ultimately there are no perfect solutions. If the social norms are flawed, it will mean trial and tribulation for the dissident, but we can not wish away society (Ofcourse historical evidence shows that on average good ideas win).

Therefore for sake of progress, we must judge.

So? Go forth and pass verdict on the world!