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FREE_SPEECH

                                                              March 8, 2021
  Let us step through
  the obvious--            "admittedly, one of
                           my specialities"       I'm also good at
                                                  quoting myself.

  Since for several decades,                                And recycling
  "free speech" has been the                                my jokes.
  cry of people defending the
  right to say things that are                                And forgetting
  typically both evil and                                     what I said and
  wrong-- e.g. racism / white                                 repeating myself
  supremacy-- a generation of
  kids has grown up without any                               FREE_SPEECH_DETOX
  respect for the idea at all.     Of course, the "free       POISONED_WELLS
                                   speech" principle has
                                   never been taken as
  You would have to                absolute.
  be blind to not
  see that there are                       Inciting violence and
  some bad problems     (Not that we       panic has always been
  with the current      ever have a        restricted. Then
  state of our          shortage of        there's slander/libel
  public discourse.     the blind.)        and once upon a time     You know,
                                           we prosecuted people     "Clever
    The kids seem to feel                  for "fraud".             marketing".
    that the fix for this is
    for them to complain                     Private property rights
    loudly and encourage the                 have always trumped
    big internet companies                   speech rights-- the town
    to suppress pernicious                   square and the shopping
    speech.                                  mall plaza are different
                                             cases.
    That has the virtue of       
    being legal-- we don't do                                 Which is perhaps
    *government* censorship    Though some fantasize          yet another
    (in theory).               about the return of            problem with
                               "the fairness doctrine"        shopping malls.
    In has the problem of      (and the "equal time                      
    expecting a bunch of       rule", which is now                       
    large corporations--       often conflated with it       
    that are by design         in our tribal memory).        
    amoral at best-- to                                     
    behave with wisdom and                  THE_DOCTRINE_FAIR            
    encourage the good.                           
                                 
    A much simpler corporate     
    strategy is to make some     AOC_FACESOFF_FACEBOOK
    symbolic gestures and     
    soothing public statements
    and forget about the issue             
    until next time, when you            
    then repeat the cycle.                  
                                  
                                            
                                 
    
                          
    
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