A lot of debates that sell themselves as being about free speech are actually about power. And there's *a lot* of power in being able to claim, and hold, the mantle of free speech defender.
There's prestige in defending free speech, but less power, because free speech means people who disagree with you are also free to speak. The power is in suppressing free speech, because then you can prevent people who disagree with you from speaking.
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are stopped from speaking or afraid of accountability for your saying racist things?
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Historically, this is true for practically every despot and dictator that ever lived.
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More generally, what some folks call "power" other folks call "status". These different words are generally associated with different moral and empirical implications, but no one seems interested in checking which theory is more accurate.
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Right now, it seems one side is attempting to both steal freedom of speech and the presses, while attempting to masquerade hate-filled and violent rhetoric as free speech or simply political differences. This is dangerous territory.
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Obtaining such power is often, though of course not always, the explicit goal of those who seek to suppress speech. It's always true of authoritarian regimes, but it's also often true of efforts to suppress speech on a smaller scale, in political controversies for example.
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There's one universal rule though: when people try to gain power by suppressing speech, they never acknowledge that this is their goal. The stated goal is always to protect some thing, or some group, from the malign influence of their opponents' ideas.
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