Freedom of Internet Speech

No sooner does someone get banned from Twitter, You Tube, or Facebook, than their Bros are out talking about Freedom of Speech.

The political right of Freedom of Speech is the State’s promise not to punish anyone for expressing any opinion, no matter how wrong or offensive. All rights come with obligations, and for Freedom of Speech there are three. First, no inflammatory speech intended to lead to violence and uprising soon after the talking stops. Second, opinions must be expressed with an acceptable vocabulary - freedom of speech does not mean freedom of cussing. Third, restriction which amount to no treason. I can live with this as long as the definition of treason is very, very narrow, and does not amount to “offends or upsets some civil servant working for the security services”.

However, just because the State won’t prosecute you, doesn’t mean you might not get sacked from work for being nasty about your co-workers in public. The State promises to keep its nose out of your blog, it does not promise to keep your daughter’s classmates' parents’ noses out of your blog.

There’s an often-quoted sentiment to the effect that if you aren’t prepared to let other people say things you think are wrong or even despicable, then you don’t believe in freedom of speech. This is not about the political right, but about people’s social behaviour. The State can be generous with its freedom of speech because it knows your son’s classmates’ and their parents are a bunch of bigots who will put you out of your business, house, health and sanity if you step one millimetre off the straight and narrow of whichever Fundamentalist Christian / Muslim / California Left-Wing Billionaire / LBGQTHS orthodoxy you are supposed to be keeping to.

Social control is achieved with sheer brute force, in business by sacking, de-monetisation, vicious PR campaigns, and personally by exclusion, lies, threats and the threat of violence. That’s how society has always worked and we have the Social Media companies to thank for making it so clear. All conformity is enforced by the threat of violence: the State writes laws to make its use of violence acceptable, and your employers, family, acquaintances, co-workers and neighbours use moral posturing and self-rightousness to cover up their shaming, guilt-tripping, false allegations, lies, threats, and retaliations.

Should content creators expect the management of You Tube to behave any better than the people who used accusations of witch-craft to manipulate the rest of the village? No. Does that mean the management of You Tube should get away with it? No. Does it mean the management of You Tube will get away with it? Yes. Until they commit the cardinal sin of Losing Money and Losing the Audience.

However, virtuous bullshit is the best response to mendacious bullshit. So the Bros should be out yelling about Freedom of Speech. What they mean is social freedom, not legal or political freedom, but don’t let’s confuse the issue.

However. Be careful what you wish for. Break up the current monopolies and replace them with smaller companies staffed by middle-of-the-road managers overseen by equally middle-of-the-road government regulators, and in a few years the whole place will look like a 1950’s teenager’s magazine. We may be still be able to listen to Sandman and Terence Popp, but the algorithms that suggest one when you visit the other will have gone.

You see, SJW’s only care about their issues. If you’re off their radar, you’re copacetic, and a lot of people never get onto their radar. The middle-of-the-road types care about everything and it’s their job to generate ‘policies’ and ‘guidelines’ to remove or hide anything that they don’t want their daughter to see, or their husbands to hear.

So enjoy the Wild West of the Internet while it’s still with us.