Uuugh I guess I have to talk about Free Speech again.

(No, not about whether corporations and private folx regulating speech on their platforms are a violation of the 1st Amendment, which they aren't)

(A thread)

1/

"But my Free Speech!" pops up any time that people with systemic privileges or power have to deal with the consequences of their speech. They call for violence or use slurs or suggest racism and bigotry and then act all shocked when people say "You can't encourage that."

2/

This is because these people falsely believe, and want you to believe, that Free Speech is an end unto itself, with the goal of allowing anyone to say whatever they want, whenever they want.

But Free Speech isn't a goal. It's a policy—a tool toward an end.

What end?

3/

The end being a Just Society.

The formulation of Free Speech in the U.S.'s 1st Amendment is a response to the monarchies that dominated Europe for centuries. To the problems of people being imprisoned for criticizing a monarch, or speaking out about bad government.

4/

That means that the real goal of protected free speech is to protect the oppressed, the marginalized, the disenfranchised. To give them the ability to criticize the systems that hurt them. To protect them when they speak truth to power.

5/

Because that's the only way that you can make society better through a dialog: By speaking up about injustice and having your voice be heard, loud enough that people say "We need to change this."

And if it's not done by dialog, well, the alternative...

6/

Yeah. A lot of social change happens through violence. The U.S. didn't give up slavery without a massive war, one that is arguably still going on. Civil rights movements are replete with violent action. Stonewall was a riot, as the kids say.

7/

Free speech is an attempt to avoid this violence by protecting the expression of the marginalized so that they don't have to resort to direct action to get results. And an attempt to prevent tyrants and governments from oppressing people who speak up about problems.

8/

When you use "free speech" as a defense for bigots, racists, queer bashers, neo-Nazis, and other kinds of cultural detritus, what you're doing is protecting the ability of oppressors to speak out about their violent intentions toward the marginalized.

9/

You're enabling them to spread their message, to organize, to recruit, and to use dehumanizing language to call into question the safety and humanity of their targets.

And that's not a great way to reach your goal of a Just Society.

10/

So, in the interests of a Just Society—one that protects the vulnerable, defends speaking out against injustice, encourages people to organize and speak up about their government and to seek a redress of grievances—you must not use "free speech" for fascists.

11/

It's just another tool in their arsenal. They sure won't extend the same courtesy to you, if they take power. They just use "free speech" because they know that many people in the U.S. have been conditioned to reflexively defend it.

12/

As always, ask yourself: Who has power? Who doesn't? Who's harmed? Whose very existence is treated as a debate topic?

It may not be you... but when fascists shout "free speech!" they are talking about how they want to hurt someone.

13/

So you can't allow that. Nor should you. "Free speech" is not an ideal that means "everyone can say whatever they want, any time, to anyone, with no consequences." "Free speech" is a tool to be used to promote protecting the oppressed and seeking justice through dialog.

14/

In short: No platform for fascists.

~Fin~