Ken WhiteDec 12, 2022

I've gotten a lot of responses to that Substack piece about leaving Twitter. Many are positive but some are negative. A few are saying "oh so you think free speech is nasty?"

What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I do. The Nazis marching at Skokie were nasty. All sorts of speech is nasty. Supporting free speech doesn't mean reserving judgment about it, you imbecile. It means not using the state to suppress it.

Show threadJonathanDec 12, 2022
@Popehat I think the concept of "free speech" is one of the most misunderstood concepts in our society.
Show threadAlan (he/him)
@jwslug @Popehat Agreed. Most of the time when people like that blather on about "free speech" what they really mean is "consequence-free speech" IE the ability to say whatever nasty or stupid shit they want to say and then pretend they didn't say it, or get touchy when people react negatively to what they said.
Dec 13, 2022 at 1:04pmWeb
Show threadJonathanDec 13, 2022

@drwex @Popehat
Yep, or, to put it another way:

You can say what you want without getting arrested.

1) I don't have to listen to you.

2) I don't have to let you say it in my home or place of business

Show threadQuiltyDawnDec 13, 2022
@drwex @jwslug @Popehat just to add--they also want you to be forced to listen to them. "I can say what I want, you HAVE to listen to me, and I shouldn't suffer any social or personal consequences for saying it."