Is the right to free speech real in a world in which there are so many disincentives for using it?
Of Course You Have Free Speech
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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I look forward to someone shrilly pointing out that the First Amendment only protects against government interference. As though Ted’s entire point is irrelevant somehow.
Well, since you (alex_the_tired) ask, I do think that’s an important point. Because in most other countries you aren’t even protected from that, while the rest naturally still applies. It’s really the first (and only) thing that comes to mind when I think about the advantages of living in the US, although it doesn’t quite outweigh my patriotism, state-paid healthcare, decent food, etc.
Hey, I resent the notion that American food is not decent. We have White Castle!
What about Denny’s? You don’t even mention Denny’s? What kind of monster are you?
What the US needs is free speech worth listening to.
Since it’s free, i.e. unregulated, it is bound to be of extremely fluctuating quality, and as such much of it will not be worth listening to by most standards.
The notion that we are protected only from government suppression of free speech is a trap ONLY if the enumerated, seemingly non-governmental, anti-free speech actors in the comic are considered in NO way encouraged, groomed,
recruited, hired, black-mailed, propagandized etc., etc, by government into their suppression mindset/activities. Totalitarianism is more total than, say, dictatorship precisely in its subtlety.