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[Somewhere For Me]

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[Lurking Class Hero]

They seem to ignore the fact that with great freedom comes great responsibility and the first amendment is meant to protect the citizens from government censorship only. However, a private company has every right to fire your ass if your speech is causing unnecessary problems for them and their image. shyt, I have every right to kick you out of my house if you come in disrespecting me and mine.

Exactly. I don't know why so many are unable to grasp this. There was a similar outcry on the right when the Observer withdrew a crude anti trans piece by Julie Burchill. If you have a right to free speech it doesn't mean you have a right to have your speech published or to not pay consequences for what you say. The fact is, we monitor and restrain our speech all the time. I can't use the same language I use at home at work; I can't use the same language I use with my peers with children; I can't use the same language I use with friends in a formal setting; If I work for a publication and start writing works that go against it's philosophy (e.g. if I started writing communist propaganda for a conservative publication) I won't have my work published. None of these are attacks on freedom of speech, they're just standards.

These guys might have a point regarding some of the stuff going on at the universities. Universities should expose their students to quite a wide variety of views (within reason). So I can understand why they might be annoyed at, say Janice Fiamengo getting shut down. But so often (as in the Milo case) it just seems to be crude, tactless people whining that they can't get away with uncivilised behaviour. In what world are people who insult and racially abuse women on the internet victims?