[LnxPrgr3]

I understand the need to defend unpopular speech, but this is such a weird hill to die on when so many other things have unjustified stigmas attached to them. It'd be nice to hear people yelling about how it's supposed to be a free country when a gay or trans person has offended someone by existing.

Richard Spencer is still on Twitter, and still definitely has an audience—though the video of him being attacked is now very well known. Alex Jones has the President's ear. Steve Bannon is an advisor to the President with access to classified information. The President is, well, the President, despite plenty of material that could be and was used to accuse him as a pedophile. (I realize this is pedantically incorrect—I also realize the general public doesn't really care.)

Milo fared less well, but apparently appearing to advocate pederasty was a bridge too far even for many of his fans. Directing a harassment mob towards a celebrity was a bridge too far for Twitter, despite years of spewing the same not-exacty-PC views.

And espousing supposedly PC views isn't exactly safe either. Remember that time Anita Sarkeesian received multiple bomb threats for threatening to say unpopular words in public? What was THAT about, and why weren't the freedom lovers jumping to her defense in droves?

[yakult]

Do you suppose these weapons are only useable against people you don't like? Do you suppose 'the other side' is powerless to retaliate, using the exact same tools? Trump is the president now, as you have said. Half of America voted for him, and I'm sure many of them wouldn't be sad for people on your side of the trench to suffer the same treatment.

On a tangential note, this constant demand to focus on other causes whenever somebody points out something's wrong is a big part why most activism fail. Every cause gets piggybacked on by a hundred 'greater' causes that it has to expend all its resources to support. Every member has to agree with all one hundred or they can gtfo. At the end of the day nobody gets anything done, but at least you can show your friends on Facebook how virtuous you are.

[LnxPrgr3]

Nothing makes people more interested in freedom of speech than the fear their own ideas will be suppressed. Precious few people are willing to defend both Milo and Anita's right to speak freely. Don't you think that's strange?

It's almost as if hardly anyone cares about free speech beyond using it as a shield against meaningful opposition.

> At the end of the day nobody gets anything done, but at least you can show your friends on Facebook how virtuous you are.

For such a useless and thus non-threatening group, they sure get a lot of blowback. Let's be real—I couldn't have possibly cared less what Alex Jones had to say until people started parroting his unsubstantiated conspiracy theories en masse.

And there's something way deeper going on with fierce opposition to social justice movements than a burning desire to prevent people from continuing to be wrong on the Internet.