I think there is a lot of yin and yang to that though.
1. Folks who shout they are being silenced, to some extent obviously aren't and usually follow that up with some direction to ... their ideas they're being silenced.
2. Anyone who is really silenced, who do we hear about it from? Group 1.
Outside of say a government straight up banning speech or outright removing it... I have real trouble weeding out who / what is truly being silenced and what the issue really is.
And I'm highly skeptical about Group 1's ability to tell me honestly about Group 2.
Many aren't arguing that they themselves are being silenced. They are arguing that others are being silenced either out of sympathy for those being silenced or recognition that the force silencing the less powerful may one they have the power to silence the person speaking out.
Those of us that still have a voice should be pro-active in speaking out for those that don't lest we one day find ourselves without a voice as well.
"They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." – Martin Niemöller
I think a lot of people’s reaction today might be more like: “First they came for the communists, and because a lot of people spoke out about it, I assumed they didn’t actually come for the communists and I got sick of hearing all of their dumb communist whining, and that’s why it’s actually a good thing that we came for the communists.”
It’s kind of funny since before the Nazis, Communists were the original archetype of a violent fringe political movement that had lots of people murdered for no good reason. People were terrified of Communists and resolutely devoted themselves to making sure to stop Communism as fervently as possible, by any means necessary. Considering the millions of people murdered by Communists this is even a completely understandable and justifiable impulse. This is exactly why the Nazis exploited this fear.
I gotta say I really don't see a lot of 'arguing other people are being silenced' as much as alluding to it, and then citing their own circumstances, so that's still kinda Group 1.
As far as 'they came first for the communists'... I just don't see that as a situation ... at least not generally in the geography or areas I'm thinking of outside big state sponsored acts. Not at scale, and not anything more than people disagreeing or wanting to host someone else's content ... and frankly when you dive into it, it's often not just some banal content, or just someone with a new idea. It just never pans out that way...
I'm not sure I buy into any friction anywhere being 'orthodox privilege' or persecution.
In certain high profile cases certain groups tried hard to silence certain people but - for better or worse - failed horribly, kind of like an Streisand effect, only
- not initiated by the person themselves but by someone else
- and working for the benefit of the person who was attempted silenced.
1. Folks who shout they are being silenced, to some extent obviously aren't and usually follow that up with some direction to ... their ideas they're being silenced.
2. Anyone who is really silenced, who do we hear about it from? Group 1.
Outside of say a government straight up banning speech or outright removing it... I have real trouble weeding out who / what is truly being silenced and what the issue really is.
And I'm highly skeptical about Group 1's ability to tell me honestly about Group 2.