Sex-Crazed Co-eds Going Broke Buying Birth Control

[Lemur]

If someone talks about "self-censorship" would you tell them that it's only censorship if the government was involved? They would say to you "that's why I said self-censorship". It's perfectly ordinary english to use the word in various ways like that.

Um, okay, sure, if you're referring to "censorship" in a casual, non-legal way, then sure, but when people raise the censorship issue in relation to this case, they seem to mean it in the legal sense. In the same light, I could say that so-and-so "slaughtered" me at basketball, but if I claimed so-and-so was guilty of slaughtering, you might take it a bit differently.

I don't think you mean that bit about shouting someone down falling under the category of free speech.

Everybody has free speech, including the people who think what someone is saying is utter nonsense. To choose a recent example, Jeremaiah Wright was caught on tape saying "God **** America," which caused immense and immediate scorn to be heaped on his head from most everyone. He was, in essence, shouted down. Not censored (unless you want to take the super-broad conversational definition of "censored," which seems to be where your head is at).

Like I said, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. If you want to say something controversial, or offensive, or distasteful, or foul, that is your right. But be prepared for others to use their free speech to tell you off.