You will not find a better case for free speech — Shellenberger “Off Script”

I was asked by a Leftie friend of mine, an old friend, “are you a free speech absolutist?” I should have seen the trap. As it was I answered “yes”. I now realise that by answering “yes” I was immediately making myself — in her mind — a beyond-the-pale, horrid right winger. Because that’s the way it’s now framed on the Left. If you support Elon Musk on Twitter and his free speech “absolutism”, you’re now part of that tribe, the horrid bigots, the right-wingers, the fascists, the Nazis!

Michael Shellenberger points out: it used the be the Left that were the fre speech absolutists. The Left that quoted Voltaire: “I may disagree with you, but will defend to the death your right to say it”. Now it’s reversed. It’s the Right who’s strong for free speech. 

Twitter is better now for the freedom on there. There is no rise in hate speech. That’s a Left trope. Tucker Carlson has his “Tucker on Twitter”. But Elon has made it clear that anyone on the Left, Don Lemon or the Cuomo brothers for example, are welcome to do the same. There is no other platform the same. 

ADDED: I’ve read both of Shellenberger’s books: “Apocalypse Never” and “San Fransicko”. Good reads both.