I think you're right, but most people have learned over time that the idea of "free speech" where you can advocate for any idea without any consequences has never existed for them. At least in my life time, I've never had that kind of protection for speech and I don't think anyone else has. You have no right to post ideas online because if they someone doesn't like you, they can get you fired. If you don't have a job, they can get your website's infrastructure cut off, or take your domain, or cut you off from every payment processor so you have to do retarded shit like accept mailed in checks.
Free speech has always been the loser's ideology. When the right had power, communists were banned and driven out of congress. The left gained power and used it to drive anyone out of academia who disagreed with their core ideology. Anyone who truly believes in free speech is in a very small minority, and eventually learns they have no one on their side aside from a few eccentrics like Stallman, or outright pedophiles, who need use the color of free speech to protect themselves from outright extermination.
It's easy to see this, too. In absolute numbers, not many people have actually been fired after the assassination, but redditers are now suddenly deeply interested in the "first amendment" or "free speech" as soon as it affects them. I'd argue it's necessary to at least this degree, just to fill their empathy meters a little bit, and then maybe later down the line we can determine if we want all ideas to be protected, or just theirs.
