For Trump and his man-baby fans, "free speech" is the right to act out with no consequences – Salon

For years, Donald Trump and the conservative world in generalhave been in an uproar over what they claim is a left-wingassault on "free speech."Actual instances of conservatives having their First Amendment rights constrained by government censorshiphave been thin on the ground, of course, if not nonexistent. So conservatives have had to improvise, expanding the bounds of"free speech" to encompass theirvagueright not to be criticized, their right to harass other people without consequences, and theirright to hijack the resources of private companies in order to blast hateful or false ideas as far and wide as possible.

Classics of the genre of "free speech" whining: Conservative columnist Bret Stephens declaredthat it wasan assault on"free speech" for liberalsto criticize the way the New York Times portrays Nazis. Stephens'Times colleagueBari Weiss portrayeda group of pseudo-intellectual right-wingers as free-speech martyrs because meanie leftists make fun of them. Trump held a "free speech" event at the White House featuring no actual victims of government censorship, but a guest list heavy with people who are frequently accusedof lying, spreading conspiracy theoriesand outright racism. Trump signeda "campus free speech" executive order surrounded by conservative activists whose main complaint was that other students and professors speak freelyin ways that make them feel ashamed or uncomfortable.

It's always been obvious that for Trump and other conservatives who whine about "political correctness,"the entire concept of freedom of speechhad nothing to do with the constitutional bar on government censorship. It was always about asserting their presumedprivilege to say bigoted, stupidor false things with nopushback or correction from other people using their own free-speech rights. In case you've feltany doubt about the depth of right-wing hypocrisy on this issue, the past week should erase it.

Trump has been on a lengthy tantrum all week because Twitter using not just itsfree-speech rights but itsright, as a private company, to control who uses itsplatform has decided, after all this time, to add some gentle context to the president's increasingly derangedtweets. There's been a growing uproar over Trump using Twitter to accuse MSNBC host Joe Scarborough of murder, culminating in the widower of the alleged victim (who actually died in a tragic accident) writing a letterasking Twitter to ban Trump because of the pain these false accusations are causing.

Apparently in response, Twitter officials havestarted adding warning labels on some Trump's tweets in which he overtly lies or encourages violence. Of coursethey haven't done this to all tweets of this nature, or the presidentialfeed would be nothing but warning labels.But Twitter did addlinks totwo of Trump's tweets spreading lies about mail-in ballots, pointing usersto factual information about voting. In the early hours of Friday morning, Twitter also addeda warning toa Trump tweet in which he apparently encouragedpolice to kill civilians in Minneapolis, where protests against police violence have escalated into widespread unrest that has included some reporteddamage to private businesses.

Twitter is only doing what free-speech advocates real ones, not the fake right-wing ones have always offered as the best way to counter hate speech and lies: The way to fight bad speech is with more speech. Trump was not "censored," and since Twitter isn't the government, whatever decisions it makes can't violate the First Amendment in any case.On the contrary, the company is using itsfree-speech rights to add context and information, which are critical for robust political debate in a democracy.

Trump responded by signing an incoherent executive order threateningto shut down Twitter or any other social media platforms that offer such fact checks. He issued ahigh-minded statementabout "free speech,"but the reality here is that he is literally threatening government censorship a textbook First Amendment violation to keep a company from freely offering information to the public.Thisperfectly distills whatright-wingers mean when they talk about "free speech" their privilege to speak without criticism or correction,a privilege that can only be secured by silencing others.

While this is all going betweenSilicon Valley and Washington, out in middle America, we're getting an eyeful of how little free speech actually matters to conservatives, as police in Minneapolis have shut down the ability of citizensto protest police violence and have even attacked the free press for covering what's going on.

Things kicked off on Tuesday, when police used a few broken windows and spray paint as a pretext to fire canisters of tear gas at peaceful protesters, sending them scattering in all directions. The protesters were there to express anger over the death of George Floyd at the hands ofa now-fired Minneapolis police officer named Derek Chauvin, who knelton Floyd's neck until he died while Floyd himself, and a crowd of onlookers, pleaded for hislife.

There can be no doubt about what happened on Tuesday: The police didn't approve of the protest and seized on the thinnest of excuses to shut it downwith violence. Sothings are spiraling out of control in Minneapolis, where people were actually denied their First Amendment right to free assembly and peaceful protest and areunderstandablyfurious.

On Friday, the actual assault on free speech by police was crystallized furtheras police arrested a CNN reporter named Omar Jimenez, live and on air. Jimenez was doing nothingillegal, but wastrying to cover the no-longer-peaceful protests, whichis his job. In fact, in the video you can hear Jimenez telling police that he and his crew willgo whereverpolice tell them to, aslong as they can keep thecameras rolling. But the police arrested Jimenez, along withproducer Bill Kirkos and photojournalist Leonel Mendez, for no apparent reason other than to suppress coverage they didn't like.

Between Trump's tantrum and the brutal suppression of free speech by police in Minneapolis, we're getting a clear picture of howthe American right really feels aboutfree speech. Protests are shut down, journalists are arrested. The president is gleefully fantasizing about using property damage as an excuse to kill protesters, and then flipping around and threatening to shut down a tech company for the sin of countering his lies with truth. (Which is truly the least they can do, after all this time.) Taken together, what we see is an American right that is happy to bringstate power to bear in order to silence people who speak out against racism or who correct right-wing misinformation.

So when you hear conservatives waxing poetic about "free speech" and the supposed evils of "political correctness,"know this: It's total bullshit.They're asserting a made-up special right to spew noxious lies and hate speech, totallyfree of criticism or consequences, while everyone elseis obligedto shut the hell up. That was always true, but looking at this terrible week in America, itshould be undeniable.

More:
For Trump and his man-baby fans, "free speech" is the right to act out with no consequences - Salon