Why we need to hear what controversial people say and not silence the debate
- Written by Peter Ellerton, Lecturer in Critical Thinking, The University of Queensland

We who live in Western liberal democracies seem to be in a permanent state of angst about who should be allowed to speak and what they should be allowed to speak about.
This angst is acute at the moment, since low-key voices that once represented extreme views on a range of social issues have recently become...