Balance

There is this quote right... And on the surface it sounds very nice, but I disagree with it.

If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind. - John Stuart Mill

Mr Mill was obviously not thinking about AdolfH. (Ok, he lived 50 years before, but the principle remains.)

AdolfH was The One with an opinion, and he didn't do much good with it.

Please don't bring up Ghandi at this point. Many, many other people shared his opinions, but he was the front-man who acted on them.

What Mr Mill seems to suggest is that everyone with an opinion should be left alone and never challenged, regardless of how dangerous that opinion might be.

Each opinion needs to be checked against its reasonableness towards follow man and mankind. The easy test to see if it is reasonable is that it will be an opinion shared by many other people.

The difficult test is to determine if those people came up with this same opinion as individuals, or were influenced by propaganda.