Free Speech Paradox

The far right keeps on misunderstanding what free speech is. Or what the First Amendment is for that matter. Actor and Christian fundamentalist Kevin Sorbo tweeted something about Ye that illustrates perfectly this misunderstanding.

I may not agree with what Ye said yesterday.
But he has the right to say it. That's how free speech works.
_{source: Kevin Sorbo}

Alright, that's good. Nobody disagrees with that; Ye's allowed to say whatever the hell he wants. Anybody can say whatever the hell they want. That's not the issue here. What is the issue, you ask? To explain that, let's take a step back.

Free speech is part of something bigger; it's part of human progression, part of the road to self-governance, democracy and a more equal, just society. You see, democracy can only function when speech and expression, especially about public and political issues, isn't restricted from above. In fact, freedom of speech is the lifeblood of democracy, which depends on a literate, knowledgeable and well informed population. Without a well informed citizenry, democracy can only fail. When one half of the nation is informed, and the other half is misinformed, democracy fails. When millions of people live in some alternate reality where Democrats form a Satanic cult, vaccines are a conspiracy to depopulate the planet, Trump won the 2020 elections and Twitter's removal of nude pictures from Hunter Biden's laptop constitutes a giant conspiratorial cover-up, democracy isn't about to fail, it has failed.

When the King was replaced with an elected government, freedom of speech became an essential part of the constitution. It became written law. That law doesn't grant any positive rights. It doesn't say that you're allowed to say anything you want, because that's the default; you're already allowed to say anything you want. Freedom of speech, the First Amendment, is a so called negative right; it says that the government isn't allowed to limit speech. That's essential, as it invites us all to speak truth to power, something that wasn't allowed in the time of Kings. It's our governments who are limited here. But not me. If you come to my house and start spouting racist slurs, I'll damn well kick you out. You see, you can say anything you want, and you won't be arrested or put in jail for saying the mos vile nonsense imaginable, but that doesn't mean there won't be consequences. The principle of free speech, as enshrined in a democracy's constitution, only prevents the legislative and executive branches of government from imposing censorship. That's it. Nothing more.

All the rest of it, what is and is not tolerated in the public sphere, is decided among ourselves. And none of us, not me, not you and not Ye, is owed a platform, microphone or bullhorn. Just like I have the power to kick you out of my house, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have the power to kick you out of their house. The problem we're dealing with here is that we've allowed those social platforms to grow so big, that they have become a replacement of the public square. So if you have a problem with Ye and Alex Jones not being allowed on Twitter, aim your anger at the system that's allowed Twitter to become so big and owned by a single billionaire. A goofy, dumb and sociopath billionaire at that, who reigns over Twitter as his own private Kingdom. See the paradox of a socioeconomic constitution that's built on democracy on one hand, aimed at creating a level playing-field where power is distributed equally through "one man, one vote", and capitalism on the other hand, aimed at creating absolute concentrated power in goofballs like Elon Musk.

Musk calls himself a "free speech absolutist"; yet another one of his completely brainless claims. There's no such thing as free speech absolutism in a democracy. Freedom of speech is a fundamental right, but it's not absolute nor should it ever be. When the power concentrated through the mechanisms of capitalism allow for the misinformation and disinformation of millions of people, when anti-democratic, authoritarian and fascist voices are amplified through the privately owned digital public squares like Twitter, democracy itself is at risk. And with it freedom of speech is at risk. Once the neo-Nazis are in power, you can say goodbye to that fundamental right. It's already started, with the banning of books from K-12 schools in many American red states. So be careful with whose freedom of speech you choose to fight for.

Will Kevin Sorbo ever say the same about AOC? Will he say "I may not agree with what AOC said, but she has the right to say it"? Or "I may not agree with the lifestyles of transgenders and gay people, but they have the right to express themselves and be married"? I have my doubts...

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