Recent changes in the boundaries of acceptable public speech have a lot of people talking about the first amendment.
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Recent changes in the boundaries of acceptable public speech have a lot of people talking about the first amendment. I think this is a mistake.
Free speech absolutism isn’t a real thing. With very rare exceptions, everyone has limits. You would not have a kindergarten teacher who swore like a sailor.
The problem isn’t “free speech” nor is it hypocrisy: it’s that some on the right are trying to change the boundaries in radical harmful ways.
1/
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Recent changes in the boundaries of acceptable public speech have a lot of people talking about the first amendment. I think this is a mistake.
Free speech absolutism isn’t a real thing. With very rare exceptions, everyone has limits. You would not have a kindergarten teacher who swore like a sailor.
The problem isn’t “free speech” nor is it hypocrisy: it’s that some on the right are trying to change the boundaries in radical harmful ways.
1/
Part of this is about retribution. People on the right have seething with anger for years as they watched people lose their job for saying racist, homophobic, sexist or otherwise bigoted things. They have never felt this was reasonable and now to slander the Trump regime by questioning the sincerity of its mourning is the new n-word.
I think back on people who lost their jobs for not supporting the Iraq war in the early days after 9/11.
2/
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Part of this is about retribution. People on the right have seething with anger for years as they watched people lose their job for saying racist, homophobic, sexist or otherwise bigoted things. They have never felt this was reasonable and now to slander the Trump regime by questioning the sincerity of its mourning is the new n-word.
I think back on people who lost their jobs for not supporting the Iraq war in the early days after 9/11.
2/
The one bit missing is real public outcry. All of the outrage is coming from the white house and to flinch so obviously at such mild political criticism makes them look weak. It will make the media seem even more out of touch and inauthentic and the exodus from TV and cable to podcasts and streaming will continue.
Six million people watched a Candice Owens video full of conspiracy and nonsense on Kirk. Is that a victory for the right? 3/3
