Some Republicans Warn of Government Overreach on Free Speech
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Some Republicans are warning against government overreach on free speech, but many commenters are skeptical of their motives and accuse them of hypocrisy, highlighting a broader discussion on the erosion of free speech and the partisan nature of the issue.
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Sep 22, 2025 at 5:57 AM EDT
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Or at least stop participating in that farce of 'we always have exactly enough rotating no votes to win every vote, while providing plausible deniability for the vulnerable seats'.
Until they do either, they are fully complicit in what the executive does.
They're criticizing Democrats. They're saying Trump is using this power for good, but he should stop because Democrats will use it for evil.
This isn't a principled criticism of a fascist crackdown on speech. It's openly-cynical political strategizing.
"Democrats will use this against us when they come to power again," not "It's morally wrong to censor the speech of your political opponents."
I remember when everyone who said this will happen and that this is conservative project was stupid and paranoid. I remember when those who said they want to do this were supposed to be just edgy teenagers to be ignored, even when they were 40 and organizing.
Liberal society has allowed basically unchecked growth of extremist propaganda domestically. The result speak for themselves, one side radicalized in dangerous and ways. Which of course is why the administration is trying to hide these well known facts & reports. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/17/justice-depa...
I value free speech, real free speech a lot. But America is divided into so many people who have entirely different narratives about what the world is, who have information diets feeding them bespoke crafted realities. I don't want to end this, I still want to cling to 'the best remedy is more speech'. But POTUS himself standing up again and again and saying he hates half of America, being forever an inciter: it feels terrible watching private industry and watching a post-partisan government run so amock, act forever against sense or sensibility, to push insane over the top narratives about crime, to forever be engendering fear and hatred. It's so sad seeing Free Speech endlessly abused by the very powerful to podcast America into tearing itself apart, to have so many so eager to believe in their secret realities.
Could someone please ask them if they also think that is a problem?