>But I think in that case one should just admit that they don't see free speech as a fundamental human right. I do believe "free speech" as in freedom to crit

>But I think in that case one should just admit that they don't see free speech as a fundamental human right. I do believe "free speech" as in freedom to criticize or dissent from the government as a fundamental right. On the other hand, "free speech" as in freedom to speak any topic without any negative consequences of income or social disapproval is not possible. It is not just my belief. I'm saying it's impossible to provide non-government type of free speech because it contradicts the other Freedom Of Association (e.g. freedom to choose who/what to spend money on.) Freedom of speech (non-government version) cannot not co-exist with Freedom of Association. It is built on top of Freedom of Association. Example: A blogger has the "freedom of speech" to hate on Mark Zuckerberg (a non-government topic). MZ also has freedom not to associate with people who hate him (and in turn he might reciprocate the dislike.) Freedom of speech (non-government version) is not as fundamental as MZ's freedom to associate (or not associate) with you. He can avoid hiring you because you hate him. Was the hate blogger's "freedom of speech" trampled because he wasn't hired? This is what the "cost" in "cost of free speech" is about. No society will "pay" for it because people don't want to be forced to spend money on entities they don't agree with. The "cost" for government-free-speech is different. The government simply has to not spend money on an expanding fleet of black helicopters to arrest people. The government also does not spend money on building more Federal prisons to incarcerate dissenters. Realistic to implement: free speech without government interference (don't arrest people) Impossible to implement: free speech with zero negative consequences from society (advertising sponsors drop you, job application rejected, school admission rejected, marriage proposal rejected, Facebook de-friending, Twitter un-following, radical religious retaliation, etc, etc.)