The Myth of Freedom of Speech

Tom Egelhoff
4 min readFeb 20, 2022

Just shut up — OK??

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I’m censored. I readily accept it and admit it. I have a weekly radio show and the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) has declared there are eight words I can’t say on radio.

I’ll admit I was considering using the title, “Eight Words I Can’t Say” as clickbait but free speech is not about me it’s about all of us.

I can’t swear during a broadcast even though many topics I cover each week almost invite the use of all eight words and then some. (Blatant crass commercialism — The link for you to listen to my live weekly radio show is in the footnotes below)

I can’t denounce a specific group of people either. Not because of government control but because the station would get a barrage of calls to dump me off the air.

Would that be justified? That’s what I want to talk about in this article.

Medium Freedom

I guess there are guidelines somewhere on Medium, but I haven’t been able to locate them.

I know there has been swearing in some articles I’ve read. I’m not offended if the use of the words are justified in making a worthy point.

If I was offended, I could choose to not follow that person or write a rebuttal reply to voice my conflicting point of view.

Another great example of free speech. I welcome opposing comments. The right comment might change my thinking of a topic.

Fire In A Crowded Theatre

One of the most quoted memes in voice and prose is, “You can’t yell fire in a crowded theatre,” if there’s no fire.

Can I yell “fire” in an empty theatre?

Pornography is legal child pornography is not. Hate speech is a punishable crime in most parts of the United States.

Where exactly is the line between what some authority says I can say and my freedom to seek out and listen to speech I want to hear?

Big Tech Censorship

Donald Trump has been banned from Facebook and Twitter. So has the BLM (Black Lives Matter) and some of the LGBT community posts.

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Tom Egelhoff

Top Writer on Government, Entrepreneur, Radio Talk Show Host, Subscribe to my FREE Small Town Business Newsletter on Substack https://tomegelhoff.substack.com/