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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025

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Killing Kirk was a direct attack on free speech. The goal was to silence his voice. Celebrating the murder is anti free speech. This is where you actually get into Popper’s tolerance paradox. If we want free speech, the first rule is you don’t support murdering people for speaking and if you do then you aren’t allowed in polite society.

Large patches of the left celebrated the death (ie were anti free speech) and then are claiming to be champions of free speech. Chutzpah to say the least.

Large patches of the left celebrated the death (ie were anti free speech) and then are claiming to be champions of free speech. Chutzpah to say the least.

In fairness I think the people on the left currently mocking Kirk's death were also mocking the idea of free speech (or freeze peach to use their infantilising and credibility-subtracting language).

This distinction is a good one, and also shows why the whole free speech argument is a death spiral. There is no freedom of speech. There is just the idea of freedom of speech.