Trump Supporters Don’t Understand Free Speech

The hypocrisy of Trumpists cheerleading the president’s assaults on free speech makes it clear that they have no idea why free speech ever came to be valued in our society in the first place. They think freedom of speech is so esteemed because it feels nice to be able to say whatever you want, and it upsets their feelings when people tell them they shouldn’t say “retard” or make unkind remarks about trans people — which people are allowed to do under the Trump administration.

They seriously think it’s all about them and their feelings. They’ve never put any more thought or research into it than that.

And from this point of view it makes perfect sense for them to say “It’s fine to deport that person for criticizing Israel, because they’re not a citizen. They don’t have free speech rights.” They think free speech is just a pleasant perk that lets US citizens enjoy the nice feelings of being able to say whatever they want; the people having their green cards and student visas revoked for inconvenient speech don’t have citizenship, so they don’t get to feel the nice feelings.

But it has nothing to do with anyone’s feelings. The first and foremost reason free speech is important is because it puts a check on the abuses of the powerful. The First Amendment of the US Constitution isn’t there to ensure US citizens get to feel nice feelings, it’s there to restrict the government’s right to obstruct the free flow of information, thereby enabling the citizenry to effectively organize any necessary opposition to the status quo. At least in theory.

This is why the first thing any tyrant does after consolidating power is always to restrict the flow of information. It’s not to make the public feel bad feelings, it’s to prevent anyone from sharing information about their abuses to foment discontent and organize mass resistance.

Free speech, if sufficiently realized, could solve all our problems. If information was really flowing freely without being constantly manipulated and obstructed by the rich and powerful, our rulers would no longer be able to manufacture consent for our abusive status quo, because everyone would be aware of how bad things are and how much better they could be.

It is only because the rich and powerful are able to do things like buy up media companies, rig algorithms, fund think tanks, decide what films get made, decide who gets famous and who remains marginalized, silence and deport political dissidents, and restrict access to information by deeming it “classified” that our abusive political norms are able to be maintained. If information was truly democratized and freely flowing, nobody would tolerate being impoverished, sickened and oppressed for the benefit of a few oligarchs and empire managers.

The US government isn’t deporting critics of Israel because it wants them to feel bad feelings, it’s deporting them because it doesn’t want Americans to hear legitimate criticisms of US foreign policy. They aren’t merely violating the rights of the speaker by restricting the flow of this information, they’re violating the rights of anyone else who would hear it. They are doing this to help ensure public consent for a genocidal status quo that a populace with an informed mind and an informed conscience would never consent to.

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Feature image via Adobe Stock.