Freedom of speech is just another phrase for uncritically adopting the Likud party line
Leave it to Bari Weiss to give a classic demonstration of the utter incoherence of how “cancel culture” fanatics think about the concept of “free speech”:
The world has gone Corbyn. Look online. When Andrew Yang, the frontrunner in the New York mayoral race, tweeted on Monday “I’m standing with the people of Israel,” AOC rallied the online hordes. The anodyne statement was, she said, “utterly shameful,” and the pile-on ensued. By Wednesday, Yang had all but apologized. The ratio is the new veto. How pathetic.
So I’m supposed to be upset here because Andrew Yang defended Israel’s actions, AOC disagreed with him, and some other people on Twitter also disagreed, and Yang responded to the criticisms. In a truly robust culture of free speech with a fully functioning MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS, apparently, people would defend the actions of the Israeli state and nobody would voice any disagreement at all (or at least any disagreement other than the very mild and narrow ones advanced by Bari Weiss herself.)
“The ratio is the new veto” is another way of saying “freedom of speech means I speak and you shut up unless it’s to agree with my speech,” which is all the concept has ever meant to these people.