Look, I'm a free speech activist: but just because I'm a free speech activist doesn't mean that I don't factor in how what I say is going to land, and with whom.

People learn about the direct effects of a powerful censorship power as they, or their friends and family, get targeted by it. You have to have the humanity and empathy to work out how to convey that danger to the wider group of people who have not felt the effect -- yet.

I don't know quite how to convey that in a polarized world where people feel simultaneously empowered to speak, but dis-empowered in almost every other axis of personal autonomy. Like, I understand why people weaponize speech: it's often all anyone has to hand.

Or why so many fear other people's speech so much, because that's what those others can use to maximize effect with little cost -- even as they might use it to cloud what power they really are taking.

Ultimately, I believe almost every story of restricting free speech ends up with the people doing the censoring ending up without enough true information to be sensible, or kind, or realistic -- or avoid their own guillotine.

How do you convey that warning to people who think it's the only power they have left? Probably by empowering them in other directions. Or at least making them feel (and be) safe. That's a hard meta-problem that I wish I knew how to fix.