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Oink Oink
If you bothered to read this, then you most likely know someone whose always pissing and moaning about free speech, or a lack thereof, or their inability to exercise it. You know the guy, their favorite comedians best joke is that "you can't joke about anything anymore". They're so concerned about their lack of freedom of expression that they just can't seem to shut the fuck up about it all the time, which is hilariously ironic by itself.
What kind of fascist hellscape are they living in? Why can't they express their freedom?
Ya know, their freedom to use the N-word in a crowded room (the people that throw them out of the bar and beat the shit out of them will get arrested though, so their rights are safe), their freedom to tell women where they belong, their freedom to tell someone who looks kinda brown and has an accent to go back to their country, their freedom to spread conspiracies online about how the Jews run the world or how the Democrats are actually a cabal of pedophile lizards selling children out of the basement of a pizza chain with no basement, their freedom to join "Free Speech" groups on social media where the average post is about Hitler being right and how it's actually OK to hate their kids and beat their wife and use NATO rounds on immigrants, their freedom to believe and say whatever they want regardless of whether or not those statements or feelings have any basis in reality whatsoever, or are just plain old nonsensical, or evil.
Because it's just like, their opinion man, and predicating literally any statement with "it's just my opinion, but..." is an impenetrable shield against critics and naysayers who might try and turn their opinion into a very public humiliation because the words coming out of their mouth are objectively fucking insane, but since it's their opinion and opinions are inalienable rights, they can't be held liable for looking like an idiot.
Which, they can be held liable and they do look like an idiot. They look like an idiot because their opinion sucks. I don't have to have any sort of legal authority to tell them that.
That being said, they are still allowed to believe and think ridiculous things. That is their inalienable right. Nobody can take that away from them, but everyone is allowed to relentlessly make fun of them for it. Also, they can be mocked. They can be made fun of on social media (the rich people call it getting cancelled), They can be protested against. They're allowed to say what they want, but everyone else is also allowed to react accordingly.
All speech has consequences. If speech didn't influence the world, then nobody would respond to speech for any reason. People would just be randomly grunting because words would have no meaning whatsoever. Am I actually explaining this right now?
We need to do more to tell these people that they're idiots, since in most cases, the concept of "free speech" they attempt to argue is just them rationalizing their ability to vocally marginalize people based on stereotypes, and use slurs. That's literally all free speech means to them.
They want to say the N word without being viewed as racist. They want to demean women without being viewed as misogynists. They want to blame Jews without being seen as anti-Semitic. They want to hate immigrants without being viewed as bigots. They want all of their ill-informed, stereotypical opinions about entire demographics of people to be considered legitimate without them being seen as stupid. They're just mad that people get mad at them for actively continuing to be stupid.
I'm so serious when I say that your friend who claims to really care about free speech, only cares about being openly ignorant, bigoted and racist without being culturally punished for it.
They just want to be an idiot for free.
That's it. That's all it means to them. That's all it will ever mean to them.
Yes, I did just segment an entire portion of this essay to make fun of your stupid friend. It's my inalienable right, after all. That's not what this is actually about though.
This is about real life situations currently happening where actual speech is being actually suppressed by actual state actors in fascist adjacent policies of the state and local governments becoming involved in constitutionally protected expressions on college campuses. Something I am willing to bet that your free speech friend knows or cares absolutely nothing about, because their free speech rhetoric is an empty vessel for their anger at not being able to use the N-word.
You can be racist as long as you don't question the State
Thanks to Joe Biden and his unwavering support for an apartheid ethno-state currently committing a violent ethnic cleansing in favor of Western interests in the Middle East that has been ongoing for 6+ months with absolutely no end in sight, people are starting to get kind of, sort of, a little bit irritated with him about it.
As of this writing, 34,000 recorded deaths have come out of Gaza, 2/3rds of those being woman and children. These deaths are a direct result of the Israeli government carrying out an attempted genocide of Palestinians in an attempt to seize their land and expand the reach and power of the Israeli government, and by extension, the United States, into the Middle Eastern region. This effort is being 100% funded financially and supported politically by the United States Military industrial Complex (IE, the tax money that would otherwise be used to fund nationalized healthcare and education).
As a result of this, protests have sprung up around the country in some of the most predictable places where protests happen: college campuses. Not just a few protests either, there are a lot.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of assembly and expression through protest. Full stop.
So it would seem a bit weird (authoritarian and fascist) that across the country where these protests are taking place, the police are also arriving in droves. and arresting student protestors. It's even weirder when the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson decides to arrive to Columbia and tell all the student protestors that what they are doing should not be allowed, while getting boo'd in the process.
I'm not going to sit here and parse through Johnsons entire speech because frankly I don't think my liver would survive that, but I do want to point out something specific he said that really ties into the first part of this essay regarding your idiot friend.
While getting booed: “Enjoy your free speech,” Johnson said tersely, pausing his prepared remarks to wait for the jeering to die down.
Enjoy your free speech. He told student protestors to enjoy their free speech.
The Speaker of the House, a member of congress, a political representative of the United States, arrived at a college campus where constitutionally protected protests were taking place, to express his dismay and disagreement with the concept of protesting, which is a protection that he quite literally was hired to defend, and became so irate with students exercising their free speech that all he could retaliate with is "enjoy your free speech".
Yeah, Mike. I will. I'll enjoy that shit. Those kids should too. I find it quite interesting how he phrased that statement. It's almost vindictive. It's a member of the US government spitefully telling students to enjoy their free speech while they have it, because if they keep being unruly, they might not have it anymore.
Make no mistake, Mike Johnson going to Columbia to tell students that they shouldn't be exercising their first amendment rights is a microcosm of how the GOP at large views the constitution in the US. That is to say, they don't view it.
This is fascism, full stop. If Mike Johnsons political party gets to write the rules, there won't be anymore stories of protests, because protests will become illegal. Every attempt at grass-roots organization around a single idea will be considered domestic terrorism, and the concepts of free speech and free expression will be all but dead, save for your idiot friend who whips out that excuse when he gets kicked out of the bar for calling the bartender a bitch.
Anyways, I dont know how to end this without rambling on so I guess its done now.