[findingFounders]

you're 100% correct. seeing comments like yours downvoted and greyed out makes me very worried for the state of the internet, i can't tell if it's bots or people have really begun to believe that free speech isn't a fundamental pillar of democracy.

[15457345234]

The battle against free speech (I am in favour of free speech) has been being furiously waged pretty much since the concept was enshrined in law. The fact that the US 1st amendment still stands and appears to be broadly respected is very much the exception, not the rule.

[Kiro]

It's unbelievable and shocking. I really want to hear the reasoning from people downvoting these comments.

[malermeister]

"When our opponents say: Well, we used to grant you the [...] freedom of opinion - yes, you to us, but that is no reason that we should do the same to you! [...] That you gave it to us - well that is proof of how stupid you are!"

- Joseph Goebbels

You can listen to this part at around 15:05 at this speech (if you speak German, of course): https://www.sr-mediathek.de/index.php?seite=7&id=37143

The take above is a classic well-meaning, but ill-informed opinion from an American with a lack of understanding of how the Nazis actually operated and how they could've been stopped.

[rospaya]

Let's not act as if free speech doesn't have various definitions and limitations even in the land of the free. You can't get two Americans to agree to the same definition.