With Trump and Musk; You do not under any circumstances, ‘Gotta hand it to them’. They lie about liking free speech, they claim ‘absolute’ free speech is their goal, but don’t really care a bit about it. What they want is the right to say slurs without anyone challenging them, but they also want to be able to abuse state power to stomp out criticism of themselves. See the FCC in 2025 for example. The only speech they want protected is their incitement of hatred. Everything else is utterly meaningless to them.
You don’t have to just let them claim adherence to an ideal that they clearly disdain. You don’t have to go around spreading the lie that the right cares about free speech. Reproducing that here uncritically is doing their work for them.
You’re telling me all this like it’s not absolutely obvious to anyone with a brain. But this applies to practically all Trump’s policies, he says one thing and does the opposite or call something with an opposite name and do it directly. The point is that it’s the right that promotes the idea that everyone should be allowed to say whatever they want even if it’s slurs, I just used it as an example. I could have picked any other typically right position that’s not extreme.
You have missed my point as well I fear. My point was that assigning free speech to the right as a ‘typically right position’ is incorrect and also harmful. They want people to say slurs, but they want to wield the government to silence trans folks, minorities, women, academics, artists, anarchists, peace activists, environmentalists and others. Someone who likes free speech and socialism isn’t a centrist. They are just a socialist.
The point is that it’s the right that promotes the idea that everyone should be allowed to say whatever they want even if it’s slurs
The right has no right to claim the side of free speech. To suggest otherwise is to accept their propaganda and is downright ahistorical. Conservatism is almost always at the heart of suppression of speech. It is just as true today as it was when Nazis burned LGBT books, or when the red scare led to the government blacklisting artists for being socialists, or when COINTELPRO was used to crush left wing minority movements.
With Trump and Musk; You do not under any circumstances, ‘Gotta hand it to them’. They lie about liking free speech, they claim ‘absolute’ free speech is their goal, but don’t really care a bit about it. What they want is the right to say slurs without anyone challenging them, but they also want to be able to abuse state power to stomp out criticism of themselves. See the FCC in 2025 for example. The only speech they want protected is their incitement of hatred. Everything else is utterly meaningless to them.
You don’t have to just let them claim adherence to an ideal that they clearly disdain. You don’t have to go around spreading the lie that the right cares about free speech. Reproducing that here uncritically is doing their work for them.
You’re telling me all this like it’s not absolutely obvious to anyone with a brain. But this applies to practically all Trump’s policies, he says one thing and does the opposite or call something with an opposite name and do it directly. The point is that it’s the right that promotes the idea that everyone should be allowed to say whatever they want even if it’s slurs, I just used it as an example. I could have picked any other typically right position that’s not extreme.
You realize that you’re talking about the folks who banned books because there were gay people in them, right?
You have missed my point as well I fear. My point was that assigning free speech to the right as a ‘typically right position’ is incorrect and also harmful. They want people to say slurs, but they want to wield the government to silence trans folks, minorities, women, academics, artists, anarchists, peace activists, environmentalists and others. Someone who likes free speech and socialism isn’t a centrist. They are just a socialist.
The right has no right to claim the side of free speech. To suggest otherwise is to accept their propaganda and is downright ahistorical. Conservatism is almost always at the heart of suppression of speech. It is just as true today as it was when Nazis burned LGBT books, or when the red scare led to the government blacklisting artists for being socialists, or when COINTELPRO was used to crush left wing minority movements.