The Cult of Vice

I feel like you're making unsupported claims. I can think if two instances where you are correct:

1. "Equal time" laws, which are so specific and narrow in their scope to the point of being almost meaningless in a fractured media landscape.

2. Slander and Libel laws which protect people from being personally attacked when the claims are untrue. These laws do not apply to true claims, nor do they apply to criticism of opinions and they are very loose in the instance of public figures.

Neither one of these apply in this situation. I am perfectly within my rights to say "That opinion is wrong." and criticize it. Indeed, one could argue that's the very point of free speech, to encourage public discourse and argument.

I am in favor of freedom of speech, and I said as much. No law should be passed to abridge speech I dislike. That has no bearing on whether I have to be in the same room or associate with those who want to do it. My freedoms to associate do not stop because a shitlord exercises his freedom of speech.

> You're a bully and you relish silencing opinions you don't agree with

Sure, by some dictionary definitions, I'm a bully, because I am totally okay with use superior positioning and social force to cow people who wish to use their freedoms to hurt people I care about. But I am not the government, and I am not responsible for the freedoms, or the consequences of freedoms, of others. And shame--which I use in a cultural context and you attempt to overload with moral words like "bully", I specifically use a word like "shitlord" because it has no positive meaning afforded to the speaker/writer in its use, I have no need for the fiction of a moral high ground--stops those who would hurt those I care about, when the opprobrium of society demonstrates that their speech is protected but not accepted. And that's the critical point: the gap between protection and acceptance is wide.

But "relishing" it--eh, not really. It is a functional consequence of living in an inherently political world, where social acceptance is what is necessary to enact political aims. Gay-bashers, say, had no time for "dissenting opinions" when they were the majority. I am comfortable--not gleeful, but comfortable--with not "accepting" them when that acceptance is what they need to harm people. Or, similarly and at rather lower stakes, GamerGaters (well, their spittle-flecked precursors) likewise were so very happy to assault anyone who challenged the young-white-male status quo, and only now that they are losing do they want the kind of acceptance that helps them achieve their political aims; I'm okay with not helping them do ill by "accepting" them.

.

oh, and EDIT: You shouldn't try to reference Chomsky without actually checking out the full context of the quote you pulled from Wikipedia--I assume just by Googling for "freedom of speech" and pulling the first "liberal" name you found--to make sure it means what you think it means. Had you read the book, you'd understand that Chomsky's concerns are around mass media, which are functionally organs of the state, using that position against the citizenry. Which is, again, different in not only degree but kind from individual disapproval and political action. But thanks for playing!