[mbreese]

> This is because shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater is not a free exchange of ideas, it’s enticement of injury.

Many people who say they are free speech absolutists aren’t exactly known for appreciating this nuance. Hence why every open forum ultimately degrades into anarchy. I’m not saying an absolutely open forum couldn’t survive (let alone thrive), I’m just saying we haven’t seen one yet.

> the way to express those arguments should be a public speech or writing

When we have a society that actively ignores expert opinions, it makes it hard to take arguments for absolute free speech seriously. And online forums tend to not appreciate “quality” arguments over high-volume “quantity” one-liner rebuttals. Online forums tend to see users eventually switch over to mob mentalities, where normal rules of argument and civil discourse don’t hold any weight. You can reason with a person. You can’t reason with a mob. This is why online speech, absolute or not, is such a tough problem.

I guess my take is that this is an issue of theory vs practice.