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We don’t have a right NOT to be offended. Nobody’s entitled to being sheltered or protected from things they dislike or disagree with. Most conservatives inherently understand this. Our choice in these situations is either to ignore that individual, or better yet, engage with our own ideas and our own thoughts.

 

In other words, in these situations, “the remedy to be applied is MORE speech, not enforced silence.” That wisdom came from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis… almost a century ago.

 

Sadly, that is no longer the default reaction for many people when exposed to viewpoints they find even mildly displeasing to them. This is PRECISELY why the phrase “cancel culture” is now part of our everyday vocabulary.

 

The article below is just another example of this. We’re living in an era where anonymous censors can declare anything they don’t like as “hate speech” and then silence that individual without recourse. We’re not talking about things like defamation, threats, slander, etc., which are clearly unlawful, but instead for speech that someone else finds objectionable. This is entirely inappropriate!

 

Our 1st Amendment prohibits Congress from “abridging the freedom of speech.” This is different. This is privatized censorship. These companies are unevenly enforcing, and hiding behind, Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. As written, that law allows them to censor anything they find to be “otherwise objectionable.” But that phrase is given no definition. It’s completely arbitrary and unevenly applied, often to the detriment of conservative voices.

 

I don’t hold much hope that our Democrat-controlled Congress and White House will ever address Section 230. It’s something I’ll keep fighting for, however, because right now we’re in a dangerous place for a free society like ours.