[jcranmer]

> The last 245 years have seen a great experiment in society and freedom, with the society to speak freely, and that the Market of Ideas might itself guide truth, arbitration by the few kept to a minimum. The Internet has been the culmination of this experiment. We are in danger of failing it today.

Since that date seems to be calibrated to refer to the existence of the US, I am assuming that this means you believe that the US has been the leading paragon for tolerance of speech.

At which point, I have to ask... have you really never heard of the Alien and Sedition Acts? If you're unfamiliar, this is US legislation that criminalized criticism of the US government (bonus points for being largely the same people to have written the First Amendment). Or have you not heard of Schenck v. US, which immortalized the popular refrain "shouting fire in a crowded theater"... upholding a prosecution for criticizing the draft in WWI.

The broad reading of the First Amendment to forbid really any inhibition of any form of speech actually doesn't really start until the 1930s.

[ahthat]

Indeed those are altogether terrible. Truly, utterly bad things have happened. The United States has not always been that paragon, for how could it? No one person is without fault, how could any country or people not have committed inexcusable actions? It' deplorable.

But today, where it is in my power, I'll take up the mantle of the good if I can, as well as I can, with the best arguments I can muster, to argue reasonably what I think is correct. Free speech, with its ups and downs, if its a thing we cherish today, let it be a thing we today cherish, and let us who cherish it do what we can to ensure that those who inherit the world we today create have greater access to the cherishable thing.

[tptacek]

The second paragraph of this comment works especially well if you read it aloud (maybe just in your head) in Mayor Quimby's voice. I'm serious, try it!