Aye, but there's the rub. Are you only in favour of free speech if it's expressing views that you don't find abhorrent? For all that we in the West love to cri

Aye, but there's the rub. Are you only in favour of free speech if it's expressing views that you don't find abhorrent? For all that we in the West love to criticise countries like China, Russia [and formerly the USSR], etc. for not allowing dissent, we have pretty much arrived at the same situation in the so-called free speech embracing west. There are points of view and opinions which are effectively censored off the internet, or illegal to express. Now a lot of people in the west say [as you effectively did] "Yes. But that's different. We only ban hatred and bigotry" Well, the people running those regimes we love to feel superior to would express similar sentiments "We only suppress comment that threatens the country or causes social disharmony". They find that kind of thing just as nasty as we find our 'wrong speak'. I don't think we can have it both ways. We either believe in free speech. In which case, with a few exceptions such as inciting violence, etc. people should be able to express, without censure, opinions others may find abhorrent. Or we believe in moderated speech. In which case we need to stop pretending we in the west are in some way superior in this regard, to countries like China, Russia, etc.