Folks, I am not sure if I should publish the post in this board.

I came accoss a sentence: " The retiring supreme court justice was an unashamed partisan of the cause of free speech."

What's wrong with a free speech? Why a person supports free speech should be ashamed?

Hi,

In addition, advocates of free speech also have to decide what attitude to adopt towards people who advocate unpopular or controversial views, eg abortion, overthrowal of the lawful government, holocaust denial, racial discrimination, etc. etc.

Best wishes, Clive

Hi, Warrener

I answered your similar question in another thread, then moved my post here when I saw this thread.

Sometimes 'unashamed' can be used to mean that someone supports something completely and outspokenly, without reservation, without considering possible problems arising from being extreme about a position. This may be the case here.

Personal opinion:

Free speech is wonderful, vital, and extremely powerful. But it can be abused badly. Free speech doesn't always mean that the speech is accurate or honest. It also doesn't mean that the speaker necessarily has any knowledge of what he/she is talking about! It can be viciously insulting and used for purely selfish purposes. It can be completely negative. It can be ranting, inciting, and geared toward promoting fear and hatred of one group for another. Etc.

Some people don't use free speech responsibly. A few people even specialize in using it irresponsibly. Some of them make a lot of money for this.

MrPedantic wrote:

I think I would take "unashamed" as merely a loose synonym of "enthusiastic" or "vigorous", in this context.