Confession time:
I was a free speeches absolutist teen. I think many young people latch on to this, but I couldn't conceive of anyone doing anything that would protect me-- had a lot of experience being shut down & told to be quiet.
That's kind of where my heart has always been. Even on twitter I hardly ever blocked anyone. Ever. But, part of growing up is recognizing it's just not practical or reasonable.
I'm a reluctant fan of moderation and I came here kicking and screaming. 🧵
@futurebird Same. Still wrestling with this internally, and have been for a number of years.
Law school led me away from absolutism. Unfortunately, once you accept that absolutism isn’t a solution, the problem is so much harder to reason about.
I think that’s probably why the most-visible free speech absolutists we see today are small children and adults behaving like small children.
