Throughout my years as a feminist activist, I've heard so many claims from (largely white) men about their freedom of speech being stifled - I've seen this recently resurge re conspiracy theorists being deplatformed. I've thought for a long time, about what their feelings mean.

Their life experience is being able to say whatever they like, in many spaces. Feminism is about widenining spaces to allow ppl to talk about experiences. Do you think they are feeling threatened by more people gaining authority to talk - not just about oppression, but at all.

There is also an obvious theory, that they threatened by a movement where other people are centered, I've heard this a few times. That their attempts to attack feminism is about bringing down and delegitimising something that doesn't venerate and centralise men's experiences.

I think there is more to it that this: male #freedomofspeech activists often use the words 'oppression' 'penalised', 'erasure' 'censorship' and 'persecution'. I think this is them experiencing, on a v light level, of what women& people of colour have experienced for a long time.

These men are being told for the first time that they can not say whatever they like. In order for this feminist process of widening spaces (earlier tweet in this thread) to occur, this means that ppl can not say whatever they like without responsibility - e.g. using racial slurs

Because, besides the obvious that it is wrong and racist, it fundamentally impacts efforts to widen spaces for people to be able to talk. These 'freedom of speech' advocates argue that this is what they actually want: for anyone to be able to say anything.

Yet they actively say things that exclude people from those processes and platforms.