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Freedom Is Not Protected By Its Violation

Here’s another letter to “proud Trump man” Nolan McKinney:

Mr. McKinney:

You label me “dogmatic” for opposing Dennis Prager’s and some other conservatives’ call for government to more intrusively regulate Google, YouTube, and other tech companies. And you allege that I’m “naïve in not seeing [that] these leftist behemoths are suppressing [the expression of] ideas which are crucial for limited government.”

In other words, you think me to be dogmatic and naïve for opposing government action of the very sort that you fear government will illegitimately engage in if government doesn’t engage in this action.

Your logic is beyond my ability to comprehend.

Here’s my simple take: Google, YouTube, and other tech companies are private. How they conduct their commercial affairs – including the degree to which they are guided in these affairs by whatever are the ideologies of their owners – is their business and their business alone; it’s not the business of you, me, Mr. Prager, or the state.

Mr. Prager claims to be a principled proponent of freedom of speech and expression. This claim, however, rings hollow coming from someone who now calls on the U.S. government to superintend, with the power to override, the peaceful decisions of private persons regarding what sorts of speech and expression occur on their properties.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

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