@bojackhorseman: As a liberal trying to destroy free speech (/sarcasm) and someone who thinks the folks who lit UC Berkeley on fire to stop Milo from speaking are damn heroes (/not sarcasm) I'm going to respond to some attitudes in your post that constantly find frustrating so that maybe you can understand where people like me are coming from.
1. Outrage. It seems "outrage" is the only emotion we are allowed to have when we push back on someone. When we see a tweet like the one last week you are referencing, we can't be annoyed. We can't be disappointed. We can only be "outraged" like we are all crazed. And then it gets worse, we get accused of "phony outrage" We are accused of being "addicted" to outrage, as if we have no control over our emotions. It's dehumanizing.
Here's the thing, we are all people. People with thoughts and emotions and reactions. So when somebody tweets something that we find insulting, don't call it "phony outrage" like you are in charge of choosing what we can and cannot be upset about. When we find something distasteful, don't call us outraged like we want someone's head on a pike all the time. There is a entire spectrum of emotions and when you blend them all together and group us all together it becomes really easy to dig our heels in and pick a side. And then it's just a battle. So yeah... I don't really appreciate being told I'm making something out of nothing. It might be nothing to you, but it could be quite something to someone else. Which is why you listen to what other people are saying
2: Freedom of speech. Freedom of speech usually means the government cannot literally censor and arrest you. Though there is much debate over how much freedom of speech you have if your speech causes "harm." Freedom of speech DOESNOTMEAN I have to like or agree with what you are saying just cuz it's like... your opinion man. So when someone comes up with an attitude or an idea or a tweet that I don't care for, I'm not shutting down their freedom of speech for not liking it, or for publicly disagreeing with that person. When a lot of people together don't like what someone is saying, they are not shutting down their freedom of speech by not putting money into their pateron anymore. When a co-worker tells me his sexist opinions, I'm not being the thought police by calling him an asshole. I'm calling him an asshole because I think he is an asshole. And if he doesn't want me to think that, then he can stop being an asshole! Freedom of speech does not mean I have to like what you say. It does not mean I have to respect what you say. It is not a shield which you can hide behind, protecting yourself from any responsibility for your words and deeds.
So I guess in closing for this little rant, stop calling our emotions phony, and stop hiding behind freedom of speech as freedom from criticism. Cuz it ain't.
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