Brief Thoughts on the Moral and Epistemic Duties of Protest
Freedom of speech and thought are fundamental moral rights, and thus protest is morally acceptable as a means to free speech. However, the right to protest is conditioned by the following responsibilities.
Moral Obligations
1. The protest must be peaceful.
2. The protest must not involve intentional physical or psychological harm.
3. The protester must take sufficient pains to avoid unwarranted bias.
4. The protester must not allow himself/herself to be manipulated by peer pressure.
5. The protester must protest based on a proper intention, not an improper one. (E.g., the protester must not protest for the sake of looking good among peers, for the sake of group acceptance, etc.)
Epistemic Obligations
1. The protester must not intentionally make false, misleading, or exaggerated claims.
2. The protester must not protest on the basis of false, misleading, or exaggerated claims, even if he doesn’t explicitly state such claims.
3. The protester must perform due diligence to understand the issue at hand. Protest based on willful ignorance is objectionable.
4. The protester must not protest merely on the basis of emotion. The protester should have adequate intellectual reasons for engaging in protest and should be prepared to state those reasons calmly and clearly. Heteronomous protest is objectionable. The protester should seek to act autonomously (in the Kantian sense).
5. The protester must be prepared to follow the arguments wherever they lead. If the evidence were to show that the protester’s views are false and/or irrational, the protester should be prepared to heed the evidence and renounce such views. Cherry-picking evidence, engaging in confirmation bias, straw-manning, and a host of other fallacies are objectionable.
Can you think of any conditions to add?