The US version of “free speech” is broken. It’s not about the freedom to express yourself or share thoughts and ideas, it’s about being able to harm, vilify, slander, and control others with impunity. Most other countries with freedom of expression have corrected this oversight, and hate speech, slander, libel and the like are not tolerated. Or less tolerated, at least. The US has the intentionally broken, abusive neoliberal version of this. Outright lying about others is allowed in the US, and because the only remedy is civil instead of criminal, it naturally favors those with wealth and power.
The US version of “free speech” is broken. It’s not about the freedom to express yourself or share thoughts and ideas, it’s about being able to harm, vilify, slander, and control others with impunity. Most other countries with freedom of expression have corrected this oversight, and hate speech, slander, libel and the like are not tolerated. Or less tolerated, at least. The US has the intentionally broken, abusive neoliberal version of this. Outright lying about others is allowed in the US, and because the only remedy is civil instead of criminal, it naturally favors those with wealth and power.
I don’t disagree that it needs to be fixed. My concern is that people who have power now are labeling things like “Free Palestine” as hate speech.
The US can’t even figure out how to identify lies. Those who are in power decide what is true and that can be scary.