self-censorship, free speech, and the powers of The People

What happens when the recently de-privileged¹ try to recoup social power by authoritarianism, and what to do about it.

No law can save you, if you don’t make it to court.

A bit of context on the free speech backlash. Was it born of shame? or arrogant bad taste?

Remember when many GOP-aligned folks were saying the country was “too woke,” and their free speech was impinged upon? That “things had gone to far”?

In my opinion, they were kinda’ right, except it wasn’t ‘wokeness’ that had gone to far, nor was it the access, rights, and programs people were enjoying more freely inside our country’s borders. It was that the halls of power and privileged buds couldn’t joke around about the minorities, and not get called out anymore.

Simultaneously, the trend toward emotionally harsh, dox-style dangers, and pile-on, media-amplified clap backs was growing more powerful in part because of the ability for digital material be anonymized and automated on the web. So what started happening was that powerful people who said or did racist, sexist, or hateful things (and these things in a civil society are painful to all), were getting personally humiliated or endangered by a powerful social machine not yet understood or well-wielded by everyday people.⁵

Simultaneously some every day people were gaining unexpected cultural influence, and some were wielding huge social power in an accelerated way. One zeitgeist hashtag and you could move mountains⁶. Also, gays, the undocumented, people of color, women, minorities of all kinds have always been among us. They just used to have to act obsequious, afraid, deferential, or run in the shadows dependent on a privileged overlord to look out for them…

But in the last 15 years or so, The People⁷ had more tools at their disposal to effect change, or to just shoot around dumb memes or conspiracy theories. In any case, it upset the appl3⁸ cart.

So lots of previously buffeted power blocks began to feel the pain⁹ of broad-based emotional take downs, and the social stigmas of intolerant words and deeds.

And groups of marginalized folks continued to work toward gaining greater access to things they always had to fight for like health care, human rights, jobs, freedom to be oneself, and more. While trolling and group shaming were wildly unpleasant, they were nothing new. These social shaming behaviors are what has historically kept those in power humble, knowing they are here to serve, not to rule.

Punishment fitting the crime: what about cancel culture?

In the long decried “cancel culture¹⁰” the punishments that befell those who spoke intolerant words were usually social and economic, which are quantitatively different than bodily harm or denial of due process. How this played out was if someone communicated hate, intolerance, ignorance, or discrimination they were now waaayyy less likely to get a great job¹¹, or they’d be subject to unpleasant meetings with HR, maybe get boycotted, get dis-invited to important gatherings, and get called out on social media. In short they were no longer getting away with inappropriate talk unscathed. Simple stuff. Unpleasant, but a call to be better.

Just to be clear: a handful would also wind up convicted in court of definitely wrong deeds, but most were just embarrassed and de-privileged a little, not personally (bodily) harmed or exiled.

I’d also like to note the powerful folks who cried “I’m cancelled!” were not. We still knew who they were and what they were saying. They just didn’t like being pushed By the People into unpleasant emotional and economic states by their own words. In the accelerated days of social media messages, the consequences were swift, as huge swaths of the population¹² were now able to ‘punch up’ effectively and virally.

The thing that people in our immediate communities know, the people have ALWAYS had the power to shape society. And our communities have ALWAYS included the marginalized. The soft powers that shaped how we did things also included a large amount of civil and social wisdom, which includes the adage: don’t be an assh0le.

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So, did trolls and folks ‘gang up’ on the intolerant, the mistake makers, and the assh0les?

Yes, they did. And no one would like to experience that kind of amplified public shaming. But even the most harshly canceled person’s access to human rights and due process remained 100% intact. They were publicly chastised, which is embarrassing but not dangerous.

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Similar to the less-evolved days of public shaming, tar and feathering, stockades and scarlet letters, unpleasant social consequences have always befallen those who practice lousy, unjust behavior as long as folks have lived together. Perhaps, as it should be? Or is a more evolved approach better?

Elevated for whom?

As regular folks know, common sense societal guidelines continue to be: get along with your community, be fair, be kind, be tolerant, mind your own business, and don’t be an assh0le. I’d also add: everyone here already has a place in our community.

But in the rooms of power don’t like to yield an imperialist style, so along with Project 2025, the GOP is now fully in bed with social media and big data, trying to regain control and centralize power with the few. Now they use the media, propaganda to help justify removing human beings from their families and communities, with little recourse and with no justice.

Disappearing & complicity: don’t let your government break your place.

Fast forward to today, where many of the same folks who complained about their limited free speech (because they were trolled when they said the wrong thing) are using their new-found power to disappear everyday folks from the streets for offenses like writing an op ed expressing a common opinion.

This is very different than what happened prior to this administration, by a factor of thousands. Imprisoning, trafficking, and exiling people without due process is beyond the normal pendulum swing of left-right politics. It is a jackhammer to the moral ground of human dignity.

Denying ordinary people due process and removing them from their families, friends, allies, and lawyers is an attempt at dismantling free speech and the rule of law. All for the sake of centralizing power with the few. Sure, you’ll hear arguments about why a given person ‘deserved it’ based on immigration status, or possible background, but none of these arguments address the real issue: are we a civil, humane society or not? Do people get heard before a jury of their peers?

Exiling anyone without recourse fractures our communities, and sends a message to everyday people to self-censor their opinions, to watch over their shoulders, and (most dangerously, IMO) to disengage their societal duties by crafting their own communities. This GOP government’s actions are telling you to cower under bullies, or else be next.

But safety increases for all if the large numbers of courageous souls use their voices, hearts and feet to protect our communities – there truly IS safety in numbers.

We build towns, businesses, clubs, and economic communities with our day to day interactions, small talk and kindnesses; and over time, with big policies and communal institutions. And now these things are getting tested by mob-like fear tactics and an odd notion we can sort people into “keep” and “not keep” piles in our minds.

But we all know, that kind of community sorting is not for people, it’s for fish and dry beans.

I hope you find all the courage you need to share your good, bold heart, and continue your work toward honoring human dignity and stay strong in your loving, empowered role in your community.

Changing minds does not happen by harsh, trolling clap backs, or by cruelty or oppression, but it just might happen by bravery, decency, power, and love. After all, we’ve been working toward a more perfect union for generations, and made lots of headway so far.

A Putinesqe-broligarchy greedfest is not okay with me for America, nor is cowering in fear, silencing good people, or ignoring what’s happening in our country so one could maybe enjoy a short peaceful moment in a privileged sun.

Because I’ve got fight in me, and also a bit of protective love, and none of us our dummies if we study history. We got this: We The People that is.

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FOOTNOTES

1. De-privileged means someone who initially had a cloak of social protection allowing for sloppier social behaviors and meanness, has recently felt it (or fears it being) removed, because the social norms have changed and the new social norms are asserting dominance. ↩︎
2. My categorization is kind of messy, but here is link for that tag. ↩︎
3. Here’s the rub: what if there is no time in court, who will hear your pleas? ↩︎
4. The term “truthiness” was coined by comedian Steven Colbert via a satirical uber-right-wing character. Using this term in my writing was my way of hinting the work could be seen as ‘comedy’ ‘parody’ or ‘satire,’ and not an assertion of firm belief.⁴ An arguable point if protection were needed. ↩︎
5. It gets more complex with non-state agents and agencies like Cambridge Analytica pushing bushels digital meaning to achieve well-funded aims, but I can’t cover everything in this one piece, so focusing on individual’s soft, social powers in our local communities. ↩︎
6. #MeToo Movement and #BLM are great examples. ↩︎
7. I love capitalizing The People sometimes, just like Our Constitution does. ↩︎
8. My 15 year old put a thingy into all my devices that when I type ‘appl3’ correctly, it’s automated to always turn into ‘grapefruit’. I can fix it, but it makes me laugh every single time. ↩︎
9. I honestly still think when Musk insults empathy, it’s simply because he is feeling the natural result of doing lots of scary and thoughtless stuff to people. ↩︎
10. I actually don’t have a huge problem with cancel culture (just a little one), because I see it as an evolution of social correctives. Here’s how ↩︎
11. Unfortunately, Brett Kavanaugh managed to still get a critically important job even with his terrible (and admitted drunken, blacked out) behavior, and that is to the point of what I’m talking about. The protective shielding of the powerful. ↩︎
12. ↩︎