Thanks for engaging - I appreciate the chance to have a discussion. I don't intend to chastise Taibbi at all. I am a fan of much of what he writes - I share hi

Thanks for engaging - I appreciate the chance to have a discussion. I don't intend to chastise Taibbi at all. I am a fan of much of what he writes - I share his disdain for the journalistic class as a whole, and I like that he gets so mad about stuff. However, I do chastise his tone and direction with this essay. This essay in itself doesn't convince me that "freedom of speech" is at peril, nor do I think it is, now more so than previously in the United States. And Taibbi's style and targets isn't convincing me otherwise at all. What are the markers of a trend away from free speech? How is there more government suppression of private opinion now than 10, 20, 30, whatever years ago? I have really heard no convincing argument, though I have read and heard dozens of alarmist critiques that focus on this campus protest and that YouTube video personality, without making a strong argument that these are systematic, government-led, erasures of minority opinions.