"Free Speech" Republicans Hate Free Speech

What they really want is freedom from consequence of their hate speech.

Mike Lindell: not free from the consequences of his lies

by Justin Rosario

If you haven’t heard, Fox News will no longer be carrying Mike Lindell’s “MyPillow” ads on their propaganda network. Lindell is, so he claims, very much out of money after pouring all of his resources into trying to help Donald Trump overthrow the United States government. His legal fees have run into the millions and, unlike his good friend Donald, Lindell cannot fundraise enough from the rubes to cover his costs. He is still facing a $1.3 billion, with a “B”, defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems. A lawsuit he’s almost certainly going to lose. Lindell needs to advertise on Fox to reach his audience of sympathetic wingnuts to buy his pillows.

Lindell is, of course, crying foul and insisting that Fox has “canceled” him, presumably for ideological reasons. Just like he’s being politically persecuted by Dominion and the Democrats and the Illuminati. 

The reality is that Lindell hasn’t paid Fox a penny since August. And while Fox will eat millions in lost revenue to keep a propagandist like Glenn Beck or Tucker Carlson on the air, Mike Lindell is another matter. Adios, amigo. Enjoy bankruptcy along with Rudy Guiliani.

But Lindell’s whining about being canceled got me thinking about the right’s alleged love for free speech.

Free for me, not for thee

Republicans do not care about protecting the constitutional right of every American to exercise free speech. What they do care about is being free from the consequences of their own speech. In fact, they find it deeply offensive when they are held accountable for the things they say.

After Trump’s 2016 win his militant supporters believed they had carte blanche to unleash a torrent of hate speech on their enemies. We saw an explosion of hate across the country leading to white nationalist marches where Trump supporters openly chanted Nazi slogans. As I wrote after the election, that wasn’t going to work out the way they hoped it would:

…now that they've won, they really do believe they can breathe a sigh of relief and verbally and physically attack Latinos, blacks, Jews, women, homosexuals, Asians, etc. just like they've always wanted to do. They really do believe there won't be any consequences.

Over the next several months, a slow dread and simmering rage is going to build on the right as they realize that there are still consequences for being a loud and proud bigot.

This kept happening. Over and over and over. The Tiki Torch Nazis did their little march and a whole lot of them were outed to their family, friends, and employers. It didn’t go well for the majority of them. Most people do not want to be associated with monsters who believe in genocide. Very few employers tolerate having psychopaths on the payroll and the negative PR they bring. 

The reverse does not hold true. You cannot dox someone for being too liberal. No one has ever been fired for wanting universal healthcare or free school meals for hungry children. When the right doxxes people, it’s so the Nazis can send death threats and try to get them killed through swatting attacks.

This is why the right despises free speech. For all their complaining about being canceled and living under tyranny, they are, in fact, free. They have the right to say whatever horrible thing they’ve been told to say by the even more horrible people on Fox, AM Hate Radio, and right-wing hate sites.

Freedom of speech works both ways

But we have freedom of speech too. And we can use that freedom to publicly humiliate them. To hold them up to public scrutiny so everyone knows how disgusting they are.

Racists, transphobes and bigots of all stripes do not want to be perceived as racists, transphobes and bigots. Instead, they want to spread hate and be a victim at the same time.

This is why it’s so important to be the consequences you want to see in the world. If the right is immune to internal change, then they have to suffer from external pressure. Always call out hate. Never ignore “locker room talk.” Never let “it’s just a joke” slide by unopposed. 

We’ve seen the results: the longer hate speech goes unopposed, the more normalized it gets. It feeds on itself and spreads like a cancer. The vicious anti-semitism of the cosplay socialist ceasefire crowd is on display because the right spent the last 8 years paving the way for it to become acceptable. The cruel transphobic laws being passed by Republicans needed the anti-trans hate speech that proceeded it. The justification for letting a woman and two children drown at the border required years of anti-immigration rage to make murder acceptable to a party that bans abortion because they “protect innocent life.”

The hate speech and lies so beloved by the right must be challenged everywhere. Mike Lindell thought there would be no repercussions for his actions and now he is facing financial ruin. The same goes for Rudy Guiliani, who now finds himself $148 million in debt after lying about the “stolen election” — because there are always consequences for what you say, even if you have the right to say it. The right apparently needs to learn this the hard way.

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