I must confess a certain weary amusement observing the fervent defenders of censorship here at Ars suddenly recoiling at the sting of their own venom. I've watched you applaud every creeping advance of "content moderation," every cheering embrace of state-sanctioned "fact-checking," and every bureaucratic incursion designed to suppress inconvenient voices under the sanctimonious banner of combating "misinformation." How earnestly you championed the arbiters of "truth," confident that power would always rest in benevolent hands—yours, naturally.
Now Chairman Carr’s heavy-handed revival of FCC censorship has, unsurprisingly, invoked your righteous horror. Suddenly, the First Amendment, that ancient parchment so long neglected, is brandished once more as sacred scripture. Where was this principled outrage when you eagerly clamored for speech codes, when you cheered social platforms for their censorship, or dismissed warnings about "slippery slopes" as hysterical hyperbole?
Your newfound devotion to free speech is heartening, if disingenuous. Indeed, "weaponizing government" was once a gleeful pastime when you felt secure in the belief that your opponents alone would be silenced. But history, as ever, holds a lesson: powers granted to suppress the speech of your adversaries inevitably turn against you.
May this sobering spectacle remind you, belatedly, that the pendulum you set in motion has no mercy and favors no faction. Perhaps now, chastened by your own hypocrisy, you'll recognize the wisdom of defending liberty universally, lest it vanish altogether.
Now Chairman Carr’s heavy-handed revival of FCC censorship has, unsurprisingly, invoked your righteous horror. Suddenly, the First Amendment, that ancient parchment so long neglected, is brandished once more as sacred scripture. Where was this principled outrage when you eagerly clamored for speech codes, when you cheered social platforms for their censorship, or dismissed warnings about "slippery slopes" as hysterical hyperbole?
Your newfound devotion to free speech is heartening, if disingenuous. Indeed, "weaponizing government" was once a gleeful pastime when you felt secure in the belief that your opponents alone would be silenced. But history, as ever, holds a lesson: powers granted to suppress the speech of your adversaries inevitably turn against you.
May this sobering spectacle remind you, belatedly, that the pendulum you set in motion has no mercy and favors no faction. Perhaps now, chastened by your own hypocrisy, you'll recognize the wisdom of defending liberty universally, lest it vanish altogether.
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