America has a free speech problem

Freedom of speech does indeed mean freedom from retaliation. Of course it does, that this is a contested point in any discourse is an educational failure. No, that does not make a popular XKCD comic wrong that many seem to base their opinion on. But freedom of speech is not only a legislative issue. If you need to be compelled by law, you obviously just don't share a most fundamental democratic value.

It is crazy how "touched" the comments of this article are. Wobbling their arms about flat Earthers and Putin. I would have expected more from the readers of the NYT and the editors are correct in their assessment. They are dishonest to themselves even if the editors put the arguments in bacon by rigorously mentioning Republicans restricting speech.