Why is it that people bring up “freedom of speech” as if that will save them from actions. Freedom of speech is the right to articulate one’s opinions without fear of government retaliation or censorship. It is NOT the right to express your thoughts without any reprecussions.
People keep spouting, ‘freedom of speech’ in situations that it’s wholely inapplicable for. While you may have the right to your opinion in all realms of life, you don’t have the right to speak it, or write it in a vast majority of realms within your life— specifically work.
When you work for someone else, the company you work for gets to decide what is acceptable speech. And while there are maybe some regulations against undue bias, for the most part, if there is a code of conduct, employee handbook, a communications department, and most definiteively a human resources department, you can pretty much guarantee that certain statements can and will get you fired for a variety of reasons. You still have your freedom of speech— you’ll just no longer have your job.
“Freedom of Speech” is not a battering ram— it’s a specialized tool to protect citizens of the United States against government overreach. It enables the people to act as a check-and-balance against the system that they elected to protect and represent them— government.
Yes, it filters down into everyday life, but rarely to the degree that most people invoke its use.
Common sense and situational awareness have always been better determinators of speech, than ‘freedom of speech’, because unless you’re in a legal battle against the federal or state government, your daily rights to ‘freedom of speech’ have massive limits on them— mostly due to the reprecussions they can and often should provoke.
Claiming ‘freedom of speech’ isn’t a free pass to you can’t touch me. In most cases, ‘freedom of speech’ isn’t even as powerful as ‘diplomatic immunity’. I say, in most cases, because when used properly, it’s a very powerful tool.
