I think the current American approach to free speech comes as a reaction to the cancel culture of recent years where there was a perception that comics/TV presenters etc would be cancelled due to something they said or posted sometimes years in the past. As Jonathan Pie recently said in one of his parody rants "the left dropped free speech and the right picked it up"
Now you could argue cancel culture was a myth etc but I'm going to say it wasn't and it's effects were not productive for discourse or society in general with people just becoming more entrenched in their own dogma.
Now we have an American government full on hate speech/say what you want/screw the libs etc etc and to me it's one of those left hand issues. "Yes in the UK they get free healthcare but you can go the freaking PRISON for offending a transgender lesbian Christian!" And that very much comes out in the conversations here. I don't ever feel my freedom to say or think what I want is affected here in the UK but then I'm not a racist, conspiracy theorist who goes online threatening to rxxx people so I guess it's not going to be.
You had me in the first half, not gonna lie, but then you resorted to the silly old 'everyone who advocates for free speech is a right wing racist rapist' and embarrassed yourself...
Jonathan Pie is an astute observer of society, him standing outside the Scottish court Dankula was criminalised in frog marching and playing Nartsee was pretty brave and pertinent.
But I disagree the right picked up the free speech issue, I think the left wanted rid on purpose, and Democrat behaviours in the last few decades have been right out of the Republican playback. The attack on the 2nd amendment failed, so they decided to go after the 1st in an attempt to go for the 2nd.
What we are seeing is reactionary politics with Trump, who has little to lose after what they threw at him, and thisnis the danger when not allowing the population to speak freely.
I would implore anyone whonis lumping free speech in with the idea of an evil person go and read some more, read about history, read about how human rights have only ever progressed with an open discourse. There are literally millions of people around the world who would kill, and are literally fighting to be able to speak without repercussions from totalitarian governments, people are enslaved and tortured for speaking up.
I get you are inundated with 'everyone who disagrees with the message is a racist conspiracy theorist' but please don't just take that as fact, it fits government narratives, but it doesn't mean it's good for you...
Free speech is so important for the most marginalised in society, it's one of the only tools they have to escape persecution and oppression.
