You are a very level headed intelligent dude- obvious over time. I have great respect for your opinion- even if I don’t always agree with it or understand it. We could break bread ( or Bourbon) and disagree all day, and we would still have a good time.
I guess my point is, there are so many places, platforms, and people from all sides were that just is not true. You are not free to express an opinion that disagrees for fear of being shunned or even beaten. I guess you could still say it’s freedom of speech but it comes with fear of speech. Not sure how to fix that.
To the bolded, I'm glad I can still trick someone.
On the other part, it's interesting because we have this vortex of so, so much speech. Like, there's never been an era when you could express any opinion without some fear of shunning (and maybe violence). We could argue there's been a narrowing (probably) as political hobbyism has become such a thing. But the main issue is so much speech that's so easy.
Like, if you said something grotesque or unpopular, it was likely not recorded. Now we put it on the record. And if someone shunned you, it wasn't that many people. Now more people than you could ever hope to know can shun you with no effort. We used to have to clog phone lines or write letters to tell some company to fire someone. Now tens of thousands across the country can put the fear into an employer while driving to work.
IN some ways, it's the issue of the internet. We can find delightful people to talk football with and say terrible things to someone we've never met, and it's all cut off.
And in a big way, we're talking norms. We're talking about being nice to people with disagree with. Holding our tongues when we see something that pisses us off. I thin we should do more of this, not because it encourages free speech, but because it encourages better interactions. Like, we're all free to be jerks, but the path to a better world is probably to not be that.
