Private censorship is not the best way to fight hate or defend democracy (2018)
2020-2021 has shown me that <i>most</i> people happen to be &#x27;fair weather fans&#x27; of civil rights. Everyone claims to love free speech but when suppression of speech opposing their own worldview comes into play, they suddenly dither and fall back on other rationalizations to justify the censorship.<p>Well, it&#x27;s not free speech being violated when it&#x27;s &#x27;hate speech&#x27;. 
Well, it&#x27;s not free speech being violated when it&#x27;s &#x27;misinformation&#x27;. 
Well, it&#x27;s not free speech being violated when it&#x27;s a private company doing the censorship. Et cetera. I&#x27;m sure you&#x27;ve seen you&#x27;re own examples of this.<p>It&#x27;s pretty disheartening, but enlightening nonetheless. I have a much better understanding of historical moral panics and cessions of freedoms. Whereas I used to wonder how some societies ever gave into such pressures, I now realize it&#x27;s not that hard to persuade the average citizen into accepting such things.