Free Speech?

After encountering some world class dipshits on my Twitter feed today who spewed all this hate my way and when I challenged it decried that I was trying to take their right to free speech away, I had to get some thoughts out. I've talked about this before in separate tweets and touched upon it in a few posts on this very blog, but let me just reiterate my stance on free speech. I'm a writer. Of course I am pro-free speech. It is 1 of the very tenets our society is supposed to be founded upon. And I understand full well that free speech does not necessarily mean speech that I will agree with 100% of the time and that will always make me feel comfortable and content. Frankly change doesn't happen when people are comfortable and content, so if it had stayed that way forever we would still have slavery and child brides. I see religious people shouting their nonsense at my face as I pass them on the streets of NYC all the time. I don't agree with a goddamn thing that they're saying, but you don't see me trying to stop them. Honestly I'd rather be out getting a blowjob than wasting my time shouting my personal doctrine at disinterested people as they pass me, but hey, he is free to waste his time just like the rest of us. I also don't agree when teachers or policemen get fired from their jobs because of something racist they may have posted on a personal Facebook page or blog. People should be able to say what they want, so long as they carry out the duties of their job without showing that racism in the line of duty. The idea of a homophobic scumbag teaching my niece and nephew in grade school distresses me as much as it does the next person, but it is a slippery slope to start policing words and thoughts. That doesn't mean the rest of us can't fight back. So it's obvious I understand the implications of having free speech in that it might mean I will hear or see something that offends me or makes me angry or upset. Anger is good sometimes. Anger is what gets change done sometimes. But my belief in free speech does not mean that I have to like what you say. Or pay attention to it. Or help you distribute it. There is also a marked difference between your belief that my lifestyle is horrifying (I could repost the stupid Biblical shit they come up with as this example is pretty tame, but i refuse to give them any more notoriety than I already am) and sending me pictures of Donald Trump in Nazi regalia imploring me to get into a gas chamber and pictures of nooses telling me to hang myself. Your free speech has now become a threat, and THAT neither the Dude or I will abide, my friend. Before anyone asks do not worry. I may be sensitive but I don't care enough about these people to be personally hurt by their words. I take them for the unintelligent ravings of bigoted assholes that they are. But that does not mean that we should not fight back. I won't try to take away their free speech, but I'm not gonna let them call me a "faggot" to my face without some blowback (pun fully intended and probably fitting as many homophobes are closet queens). Simply put: free speech gives you the right to hate me and talk about it, it does not give you the right to threaten me on my own page. The same way my free speech grants me the right to have a Pride parade in NYC and talk about how wonderful our community is, yet doesn't grant me the right to march that parade through your living room. So have fun on your side of the wall, haters, but keep your bullshit rhetoric away from me. We'll be drinking Mimosas and having a good laugh at your expense over on this side.