The defining fact of the United States is freedom of speech.

To the extent this country is actually exceptional, it's because we have the First Amendment to the

Bill of Rights. We have freedom of conscience. We can say what we really think. There's no hate

speech exception to that just because you hate what somebody else thinks. You cannot

force that person to be quiet because we're citizens, not slaves. But that right, that foundational right that

makes this country what it is, that right from which all other rights flow, is going

away at high speed in the face of censorship.

Now modern censorship bears no resemblance to previous censorship regimes in previous

countries and previous eras.

Our censorship is affected on the basis of fights against disinformation

and malinformation.

And the key thing to know about these is they're everywhere, and of course they have no reference at all to whether what

you're saying is true or not in other words you can say something that is

factually accurate and consistent with your own conscience, and in previous

versions of America you would an absolute right to say those things.

But because someone doesn't like them or because they're inconvenient to whatever plan the people in power have,

they can be denounced as disinformation,

and you could be stripped of your right to express them,

either in person or online.

In fact, expressing these things can become a criminal act and is.

And it's important to know by the way that this is not just the private sector doing this.

These efforts are being directed by the U.S. government, which you pay for and least theoretically own.

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