Here are two matters I’d like to address lest they continue to up-end us, down the line. And I acknowledge that I have mentioned them before.
The first is that folks are saying they’re being called conservatives and they don’t feel like conservatives. Here are Bill Maher and Elon Musk having that conversation:
Bill Maher: You and I are both in a small group … maybe it’s a bigger group now … who are called conservatives who haven’t really changed. I don’t think of you as a conservative.
Elon Musk: I at least think of myself as a moderate. (1)
I’m not a conservative, not by native inclination nor as a Trump supporter. I’m a Trump supporter and would be even if he left the Republican Party.
The tie is personal, to Donald Trump, not either partisan, to the Republican Party, or else attitudinally, to conservatism. And I think this may apply to many people. (2)
I’m a reformer in a time of draining the swamp and a centrist in peacetime politics. Like Elon said, I’m a moderate.
So that’s the first thing.
Second thing: It’s a misunderstanding of free speech to say “no censorship!” Of course we practise censorship. Not all speech is allowed. Free speech has to conform to laws against hate speech; where speech does not, the speaker is liable to legal action.
Just see what happens to the person who stands in Times Square and shouts “I’m gonna kill that bastard Donald Trump!” He might be censored with lethal force.
Right now we’re watching The View get sued by two people, for hundreds of millions of dollars, for defamatory statements. Where is free speech now? You see what I mean?
Thus, it may be more accurate to say that we accept free speech except where it presents a clear and present danger of harming or inviting harm upon another or others.
So: Not all Trump supporters are conservatives and we do censor people under certain circumstances.
Footnotes
(1) Go to 05:57-06:14:
(https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=07p_OjDYE0E&t=380s.)