Ultimately, my experience has been that a lot of free-speech absolutists rapidly lose their belief in absolutism the moment it's something that affects them. Su

Ultimately, my experience has been that a lot of free-speech absolutists rapidly lose their belief in absolutism the moment it's something that affects them. Suddenly, people are being pressured to fire folks who released statements on Palestine that were pro-Hamas. Now, I'm not pro-Hamas myself, but it's telling to me that so-called anti-cancel-culture people are very pro-cancel-culture now. It's a pretty big warning signal about who one chooses to be in bed with. You may think the guy standing next to you is for free speech until you find out that his absolutism is somewhat less than absolute. Ultimately, I suppose one has the right to lobby other people to shun someone and one has the right to shun someone. Free association is important. But to discover and undiscover that depending on the outcome means it's not a true principle, which is just useful to know about others.