I'm actually reading some old texts on these free speech debates to see if they can inform my thinking. One thing that's noticeable is many of them are written when there are other, supposedly greater things going on.

George Orwell wrote "The Freedom of the Press" during World War II. John Milton gave his speech Areopagitica during the middle of the English Civil War. The Bill of Rights was written when our nation was struggling to survive in its infancy.

Maybe comparing these controversies to such lofty moments of censorship in political history is a bit much, the type of thinking that shows we're all out of our brains right now. Fair enough.

But the point is that a debate over censorship, even when it involves people who falsely think they're being censored, can unfold at any time. That's because censroship and speech are always petinent issues. They're also always issues that can be dismissed.

People die every day, sadly. Economic ruin exists every day, sadly. Injustice & inequality persist every day, sadly. So when is the right time to talk about if our society truly care for expression and debate? When is the right time to argue if there's growing censorship?