On Embracing Free Speech and Expression - Part I

We all start somewhere. Where will you?

Hello, ladies and gentlemen!

Welcome to another episode of The Partisan. I am your host, Phisto Sobanii, and on today’s show we’re starting a special two part series. Specially, I’ll be discussing my own journey in understanding free speech in order to edify and encourage you to deepen your own appreciation.

To writ, an aphorism.

I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Evelyn Beatrice Hall said this in 1906, paraphrasing the legendary writer Voltaire. Many folks passionate about free speech and expression use this phrase as the clearest, most scripture-like expression of our core values.

With Part I today, I hope to reach those who understand the importance of these matters instinctually, want to know more, but are unsure about what to do. To put it simply, if you like my particular brand of zeal here’s where it came from. Buyer beware, you may just become a more awesome human!

Part II, which I hope to publish before the end of the year, is for people who simply don’t value the concept in the proper way. How do you know if you’re in this group? Here are some clues. If you’ve ever said the following or similar, you may not really understand what this is all about and why it’s important.

Free speech is great and all, but…

Civil society must place limits on…

I just don’t want to share a platform with…

Now, before you jump to the comments and start complaining please do read the rest of this piece and Part II. It’s important you get in that habit, for one, and second of all I do truly hope you learn something. What will that be? Perhaps you’ve noticed a particular zeal online when you “debate” defenders of free speech. Maybe they have said some very uncouth things to you. Perhaps you feel insulted, attacked, or even… perish the thought… hated. There’s a reason for that, and it has very little to do with what you read or heard. The problem is, well, you. I hope to show why in hopes you’ll possibly repent.

But for now, to business with Part I! Let’s get you kids edified and on your way to greater things.

When it comes to my own understanding of free speech, I suppose in a lot of ways I’m just lucky. You see, I’m part of the “Class of 2000,” a group of people that came of age in America during the 1990s and saw the closing of the certain-to-be-mythical 20th century. We saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and Communism, the rise of American global supremacy, the first Iraq War, Yugoslavia, and then 9/11. Above and beyond these events sits one singular creation. You know the one:

The internet.

My cohort remembers what life was like before it, and with that, how things were “pre-revolution.” Words meant what they meant. There was an agreed upon way how life was supposed to work. There was a common cultural understanding between everyone and things worked relatively well. Sure, there was more work to be done to make a better future for our children but we were always looking to do it. Now, this all isn’t to look back on the past with rose-colored glasses (the wars are proof enough there was a lot of bullshit just below the surface) but to simply establish an enormous amount of change occurred over the decades. It is not a judgement, but simply a statement of fact through my own perspective of having lived it.

Because today we’re all astronauts in the weightlessness of pixelated space, exchanging graffiti with a disembodied race. It is a disorienting, dangerous, exciting, and endlessly enriching experience for me. However, that’s because I know my own history and have something to return to when things get too weird. When it comes to the topic at hand, here’s two people of historical note that act like magnetic boots, latching me to the deck of my spacecraft.

I’ve been reading Glenn Greenwald off and on since his days at Slate.com railing against the absurdities of the so-called War on Terror. Being a college student at the time, the post-9/11 world was a tempest and Glenn was my lighthouse to safe harbor. Were it not for his influence, who knows what snakes may have pulled me from the path and what ditch my corpse might find. You see, Glenn was and remains an erudite, well spoken, and incisive critic with a well developed legal mind. This should surprise no one, since he started off as a First Amendment lawyer. If you’re wondering how to develop your understanding of free speech and expression, he’s a great person to start learning from.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has a video, featuring Glenn, about the very subject of my post. Click here to check it out. These days Glenn mainly stomps around Rumble. Check him out here.

The next person in my education is related to Glenn, and if you were paying attention during the Obama Administration, you know who I’m talking about: Edward Fucking Snowden (I’m so sorry, I know that’s not your real middle name). He is famous for blowing the whistle on the American government spying on its own citizens. Glenn was part of the reporting team (along with Laura Poitras) that broke the story in the Guardian (old timers: my, how far they’ve fallen?).

I bring up Edward for a simple reason: he is an example of the first principles in action. Agree or disagree on the revelations, it was morally correct to do what he did in order for us, his fellow citizens, to know what our government was doing to us in our name. First reading about the disclosures I was utterly amazed at the depth of corruption revealed. Beyond that, the courage of Snowden to reveal his name ahead of those hunting him showed an individual of rare character. It showed me a contemporary not just talking but acting with the highest of principles in mind.

If you want to learn more about his incredible story, along with Glenn and Laura’s roles in it, I’d recommend starting with a podcast series from American Scandal. You can find it here. He’s also on Substack. Hi,

Edward Snowden

-senpai!

That’s really it, folks. Go explore for yourself, because it’s time to wrap the show up for today.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little peek behind the curtain as to what made me… well, me! Free speech and expression is core to what makes us people, helps us create communities with each other, and make a better world for our children. That world is only going to get stranger for now, so steel yourselves with knowledge and inspiration.

Past that? Honestly, do what you want. There’s been a lot of words written over the past few weeks about this topic and I can understand the fatigue many of you rightly feel. Don’t worry about it. Speak up or not, just do what is right, and that includes things like rest and relaxation. Free speech doesn’t depend on you to save it, in much the same way you can’t turn off gravity with a switch.

The important thing here is that you learn, understand, and make sense of it for yourself and your family and friends.

In the end, whatever you do, you will fear no darkness. Trust me, because I don’t.

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Thanks for reading! Kindly let me know your thoughts in the comments. I love engaging with readers, and these pieces are a means to that end. If you think this was worth your time, please share via Restack or personal recommendation. That means a lot to me.

Stay turned for Part II in the next week or so to hopefully provide some useful insight for the ignorant folks on the “other side.”

Take care!