I continue to be mystified by the sentiment that being a First Amendment advocate means *socially* tolerating people I find obnoxious or contemptible. I keep getting “what kind of free speech advocate blocks people?” The kind who doesn’t deal with assholes when not professionally compelled to do so. The First Amendment isn’t a hair shirt.
/2 I mean most of these people like to imagine that they’re fuckin Galileo tugging at the hem of my robe asking me to consider their alternative to egocentricity in the name of Science. Guys, that’s just not you. I’ve got plenty of people already yelling at me about how I’m a cuck or wanting to lecture me about whether or not women have penises or about how the incorporation doctrine is wrong. If I need input on those subjects I’m all set, thanks.
/3 Sometimes it seems like some sort of stylized cult of manhood, where to be a Real Man you have to constantly surround yourself with people you find completely insufferable. Leave me out of that one Charles Atlas. And it’s not like they really mean it. The dudes wanting me to sit through their right-wing bullshit are not seeking out dialogue with purple-haired Che-shirt wearers screaming at them that meat is murder. Spare me the pretense.
I've always told them free speech goes both ways. They can spout their crap at me, then it's my turn to tell them to fuck off and block them. It's all part of the beautiful tapestry of being able to speak your mind.
@ScottSoCal @Popehat That gets them upset the same way boycotts do. They think boycotts are anti-capitalist, anti-free-speech. But I can’t think of anything more democratic, free-market, and free-speech than a boycott.