I'm definitely not saying the same thing.

I expect almost zero hypocrisy from "free speech absolutists", I expect them to be ideologically consistent and loud about it. FIRE in particular has a tremendous track record of doing so.

Elon is a bit of an outlier in his more hypocritical track record.

There is a meme that conservatives often have their rights trampled (e.g. conservative businesses being debanked, conservative figures blacklisted from Hollywood and social media, Parler being delisted), but instead of conservative leaders doing anything about it, simply point out "Wow, can you imagine if the roles were reversed? The media and legal system would be up in arms!"

(You may not agree with the meme, I'm just telling you that the meme exists)

“Cancel culture”

It is extraordinary to watch the group now being themselves deplatformed still arguing against those who oppose deplatforming.

No my point is that free speech isn't a spectrum, we either can say whatever we want or we can't. As far as whether we have it, no in the US we don't have it today as certain speech is still made illegal.

I don't cast free speech in absolute terms, I take issue with those that do since it isn't a spectrum.

One huge distinction to raise here is that free speech is a protection between the individual and the state. Corporations are free to regulate speech on their own platform, especially when users agree to terms of service that stipulate as much.

We can debate where the line on regulation should fall, but that isn't a free speech debate.

Threats are the gray area. I don't view words as violent action, people can say whatever they want. A person acting on it is a different story, including preparations like a person collecting materials for a bomb or something like that.

I could care less if someone wants to say they're going to hurt me. My beef is when they actually try to do it.

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Those aren't free speech advocates, and there is no absolutism with speech - you either have free speech or you don't.

"Free speech absolutist" was a strawman used against anybody who spoke out against deplatforming as a dangerous idea, which included a lot of liberals. (The pro-deplatforming crowd are very much not liberals.)

Watching the pro-deplatformers get burned by their own illiberalism is very satisfying; watching some of them not having learned any lesson from it, doubly so.

So wait… are you supporting Meta’s censorship here or not? Another weird comment

It just seems like these comments want to stir the pot

Okay? That doesn't say much about what they do today nor if you are against this censorship.

i havent really seen proper breaches of free speech until those same people got power, like the government coming in to strip people's education visas or greencards for having the illegal opinions about israel

Free speech is not freedom from free speech being used against you. You don't just get to say what you want and everyone else shuts up about it. How absolutely myopic do you have to be to think this way?

Mostly no, but the people who ARE pro free speech (e.g. libertarians) have mostly found the right to be slightly more tolerant.