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What am I supposed to do about it? I do argue for free speech maximalism and fairness. It makes me as popular among my Blue tribe cohort as I am among the Reds here.
Staking out the moral high ground when that plot of land isn't in play is a cheap signal. I agree with you about the theoretical advantage of free speech maximalism. I also know that isn't an option in the current dispensation, or probably ever. If we're arguing black-box politics, you're absolutely right. If we're arguing real-world political coalitions in which one group has much more of a censorship apparatus than the other, and both are going ham with what they've got.....then free speech maximalism is just Lions fandom. The adulation of a losing team for the purpose of not having to pick between real contenders.
FWIW, I find myself working through a lot of my libertarian beliefs like this recently.
Speech maximalists fundamentally fail because it requires speech maximalism to be the ultimate good. If Che Guevara is winning but you have one final moment to stop his movement and hang him and essentially protect your shire almosts everyone is choosing to hang him. And the US government and people have chosen this route many times.
Sometimes you need to be anti-liberal to save liberalism.
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I think you're dead wrong about Lions fans, and by extension free speech maximalists. They aren't sticking with a losing thing because that's easier than choosing between possible contenders, they are sticking with the losing thing because they truly love it and are unwilling to abandon it no matter the cost. I think that this is noble and something more people should emulate, personally. The world is a shitshow these days precisely because so many people evaluate their principles based upon the results they get from them, rather than sticking to "sorry, but this is just plain right and I don't care if anyone else agrees".
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