[naasking]

> Imagine you have free speech. Yay! Now what? Why was this so important again?

It's important because it's a human right.

> Free speech is not an end goal. It's a tool that serves a purpose.

No, it's a human right. Thinking that "human rights" are tools to serve a purpose is authoritarian thinking, where we grant people fictitious "rights" only if they serve some greater social purpose, but if that social purpose is threatened by those rights, we reserve the right to oppress them.

That said, I agree that recognizing free speech is a right doesn't mean it must be unrestricted. Other rights exist too after all.

[thephyber]

"because it's a human right" isn't exactly a useful argument.

Someone decided to add it to the list of human rights. They did it because it is a useful tool (and likely because humans without it are somehow less than humans with it).

I don't think your answer is as useful as perhaps an explanation of why it is a human right.