I am not in fact saying that particular incident is or is not ok. (I also don&#x27;t think his tweets are fairly characterized by your summation.) As I mentioned, I am addressing the line of argument, not the case.<p>What I amsaying is that when the &quot;freedom of speech&quot; flag only gets hauled out for pro-bigotry straight white guys, I think it&#x27;s not really about freedom of speech but instead  defense of privilege. If defenders of free speech want to convince me they&#x27;re serious, they&#x27;ll be just as vigorous in defending unpopular opinions of people not in their demographic.<p>That may even be you, in which case, congrats. But unlike you, I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s unconditionally bad that some people are afraid to express opinions because they may face social consequences for them. E.g., if some of the Donald Sterlings of the world are now afraid to express their bigotry, that&#x27;s ok by me. And if some people are afraid to publish something because they aren&#x27;t sure whether or not it&#x27;s bigoted, I also have a hard time seeing that as bad. That seems like a fine opportunity for them to consider their opinions before publishing them.<p>In fact, I think that&#x27;s what most people do. The only thing that&#x27;s different is that straight white guys now have to do the same sort of self-managing that everybody else has always done, because they&#x27;re now slightly less insulated from the consequences of their actions.