We are literally self-destructing because our governments are in league with big finance, big business and big propaganda media while they all have exploited the public on a monumental scale so great it hasn’t worked its way through the economy yet and is not fully felt by the public - sad and hard times to come which will be added to with further prosecutions and persecutions of free speech as we move backwards to protect growing inequality that’s approaching totalitarianism.
Why should anyone be attacked for stating an opinion or raw facts? That is one of the major tactics our increasingly fascist governments are using to tighten the noose around free speech and all it’s benefits, as well as the necessity of free speech for keeping government from eliminating all of our “rights” while the self entitled elites and their top echelon minions exploit the public to the max - at will - including by pushing an increasing percent into the streets with no legal opportunities to provide for themselves and no government support to keep them afloat. If we lose free speech while accepting its elimination through any tactic whatsoever, how will anyone protest the government overstepping its bounds or allowing some favored group to exploit large factions of the public - exactly as big finance, big pharma, big oil, big insurance, big military, big agriculture, big chemicals, big medical and big education are all doing under the umbrella of big government?
The notion that only a specified group can determine how any particular issue or phrase can be viewed, is dangerous and will almost always lead to extremism and/or abuse at some point. Imagine if only religious groups could decide what will be said or thought concerning religion while only atheists could decide what is thought or discussed concerning evolution. Imagine if only Wall Street determined what could be said or thought concerning banking practices while consumer protection agencies and advocacy groups decided what could be thought or said concerning business practices. Imagine if only gun manufacturers decided what was allowed to be said or thought concerning guns and only victims of gun violence could determine acceptable thoughts on gun laws. Imagine if only minorities determined what was said or thought about racial issues while only Caucasians could determine what could be said or thought concerning white people. Imagine if only men decided what could be thought or spoken concerning men while only women could decide what was thought or spoken about women.
This is cancel culture - we’ll all cancel each other out by exercising our own special privileges to determine what’s illegal to think or say about us - while it plays right into the hands of growing government tyranny that wants to silence historical and present day truth about itself.
Communication is not perfect. There’s no way to know what percent of readers will perceive these words as they’re intended and agree or disagree. And regardless of whether or not we perceive and understand each other’s positions accurately, trying to understand the world and each other is still a worthy goal in my opinion. Free speech is required.