"The United States is in a speech war. Normally, human beings fight over money or land or love, but that is not what is happening today. Today, people are fighting over words. People's lives are being damaged and sometimes destroyed not for something they did but for something they said. We live in a society of doxing, trolling, cancelling, sanctioning, slandering, deplatforming, defunding, persecuting, prosecuting, firing, and sometimes killing over the expression of an opinion."
"A big part of the craziness is that some of the people going to war over words are casting themselves as champions of free speech. It's the people they are trying to silence, they claim, who are the enemies. The lord of misrule here is the person you would expect. On January 20th, his first day back in office, Donald Trump issued an executive order titled "Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.""
Society has entered a 'speech war' in which individuals face severe consequences — including doxing, cancelling, defunding, firing, prosecution, and even killing — for expressed opinions. Lives and careers are being harmed not for actions but for words. Many participants present themselves as defenders of free speech while simultaneously trying to silence opponents. Political leadership has invoked executive measures to frame and protect constitutionally protected speech and to prevent perceived government censorship. The administration subsequently took concrete actions such as excluding a news organization from events over naming disputes and sanctioning law firms tied to controversial clients, blending private and governmental coercion.
Read at The New Yorker
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