For loud movements above a certain size, this certainly rings true for me. Obviously there are a lot of people out there who truly believe in actual free speech - I’m one of them … but there’s some kind of fine line. It still feels a bit like harassment when groups on campuses (often not anyone with any affiliation to the school, bussed in by special interest money) are deliberately “getting in my face” as I walk between classes. I don’t mind them being there, but feels like they should have to stay 2 feet off the walkways and not go right up to people. I feel the same way about restaurant barkers/criers in the French Quarter though.
When I say “bussed in by special interest money” I’m not calling out “George Soros” or anything. And its not like 100 people or anything - just 1-5. I’ve seen it done across the entire political spectrum - PragerU, Anti-zionist groups, churches, nation of islam, DNC, etc. I spend time sympathetically talking with a lot of the groups and learn they’re often poor individuals who have a lot of time and moneyed groups take advantage of their time and convince them to heckle for their cause, and set up drivers / ride shares across the metro area to get random people to the campus.
For me its the aggression and attempts to incite angry responses which I find debatable: whether incendiary behavior should be considered “legal free speech”. Its often not just “speech” but body positioning and direct targeted aggressive engagement of individual passersby which feels calculated to make people feel aggressed while maintaining some degree of plausible deniability.