Neil Young/Joe Rogan Discourse Proof That Fascists Are Killing 'Free Speech'

I found it.

The stupidest argument on the internet.

And it’s from the “very deep thinkers” claiming that Neil Young pulling his music from Spotify is akin to Tennessee schools banning Maus.

See… it’s all about the hypocrisy of liberals (read: people who believe the Holocaust both happened and was bad) complaining about a government agency banning a book while cheering that Neil Young removed his catalog from a major corporation because they profit off anti-vaccine drivel. SAME THING! Dontcha know what censorship is?!?!?

Except it’s not the same thing. Banning Maus (an affiliate link because you should go buy it and read it) is a government action raising all manner of thorny constitutional issues because governments are obligated to represent everyone while Neil Young is a private actor telling another private actor that it can no longer profit off of his property.

Little “l” libertarianism should be on Young’s side. This is how the free market is supposed to work. He is not obligated to support Spotify and Spotify is not obligated to carry either Young or Rogan. Neil Young initiated a very specific boycott and Spotify made its choice… which is definitionally freedom. And while right-wing media complains that “no one listens to Neil Young anymore” the fact that Young has now cost Spotify around $2 billion is a victory for the concept of a free society.

There are problems with literally monetizing the marketplace of ideas — some voices will yield disproportionate power and others will get shut out — but this is exactly how it’s supposed to work on the libertarian drawing board.

And yet it’s the capital “L” Libertarians leading the charge to morph private citizen Neil Young into a vile censor because the civic virtue of “free speech” got so derailed over the years that folks don’t even understand the point of it anymore.

Free speech does not mean everyone is obligated to be passive bullshit receptacles for every nonsense opinion. It does not mean you deserve an audience or even basic respect from others. It means that the government — which derives its power from representing everyone equally — can’t use that power to play favorites.

Somewhere along the line folks swapped out this free speech discourse for the idea that unpopular speech is a per se good as opposed to a necessary evil. Even people who grasp the fundamentals of this controversy are chastising Young for contributing to a siloed society as if it’s better for the world if we just disconnect and let the marketplace of ideas become an uncontested cesspool. A profitable cesspool that every consumer should silently soak up!

This gets everything backward.

The ACLU didn’t defend Nazis because it thought “people need to hear more from the Nazis,” they did it because governments shouldn’t be the ones shutting down Nazis. But this new, twisted free speech discourse aims to make villains of anyone criticizing Nazis as if the airing of unpopular speech is a good in and of itself.

This is a wildly dangerous development.

Because this is how fascism operates. By twisting free speech rhetoric from “don’t ban speech” to “everyone must affirmatively celebrate all speech,” it creates a civic virtue of silencing dissent. Neil Young is a bad person for not endorsing Joe Rogan and all of you are bad people if you don’t agree with fringe opinions. Unfortunately this ridiculous idea has purchase at the highest levels — it’s been almost five years since Yale Law School suggested that protesting bigots is unseemly behavior, as opposed to the bedrock of free expression.

Bringing us back to the Maus controversy. Can we all stop with the “banned books are good” trope? I get that it generates a sense of urgency to point out how far censorship has gone in the country and creates a sort of camaraderie to get together and look down on the slackjawed racists banning great works of literature, but the problem is the banning not the quality of books getting banned.

And right now all those “go read what they say you shouldn’t” takes sound an awful lot like “do your own research.” And from there it’s a short walk to “why not take horse dewormer?” or “go ahead and lose to the 49ers” takes. Maligned books aren’t necessarily good ones, even if a lot of them are. The point is that they shouldn’t be banned in any event.

Don’t help disingenuous actors by putting the cart in front of the horse.  Government action is suspect, citizens rising up in their private capacities to counter speech is good.

Go cancel your Spotify account if you think private companies shouldn’t profit off anti-vax discourse. That’s your right.

Not censorship.

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.