Hacker News Reader

Freedom of speech is a generic concept.

"The Freedom of Speech," the legal right defined by the constitution only applies to the government because the constitution only applies to the government.

Indeed, you are free to make your offensive speech. And I also have the freedom to tell you your speech makes me uncomfortable, and to convince those around me to do the same and shun you while you continue to speak it near us. Now both our freedoms of speech have been preserved and any appeal to "Freedom of Speech" is vacuous and we can never use the term again in this context. Great.

There is a difference between the legal right and the principle.

> Separately, please note that "freedom of speech" is a term which refers specifically to the government using force to prevent or compel speech from private citizens.

There's a whole world outside US: http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/