Free Speech, As Long As You Don’t Offend The King
“You have the right to free speech
Dumb enough to actually try it.”
– The Clash, “Know Your Rights”
I once learned the hard way that free speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences, even when you think you’re among friends.
Years ago, one of the employees on my team was the stepson of a colleague I didn’t get along with. Over the years, we had bonded, often venting over the issues we had with his stepfather.
One day, he walked into a conversation I was having with coworkers about the stepdad. Trying to break the tension, I joked, “I won’t hold it against you because of who your mother’s sleeping with.”
It was an offhand remark, dumb and in poor judgment. Word got back to the stepfather, and I ended up in HR. Their message was clear: “We want you to apologize and tell him you didn’t mean it.”
I had no issue apologizing. But the second part? That’s where I hesitated: “You want me to tell him that I do hold it against him because of who his mother’s sleeping with?”
The memory of this incident came rushing back to me this week while watching the pile-on against Jimmy Kimmel.
“Jimmy Kimmel…said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.”
- Donald Trump
- Jimmy Kimmel
Kimmel has been under fire from the MAGA World for what they claim were disrespectful comments about Charlie Kirk following his murder. Vice President JD Vance has even suggested that Kimmel should apologize to Kirk's widow.
The problem with all this outrage is that Kimmel already did what any decent person should do. Right after the news of the murder broke, the late-night comedian condemned Kirk's murder and expressed condolences to his wife and young children. What exactly are they asking him to retract? Would his detractors be more comfortable if Kimmel did not think it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human over politics?
Unlike many who despised Kirk’s brand of far-right activism, Kimmel chose restraint. He didn’t bring up Kirk’s inflammatory takes—like his dismissal of Martin Luther King Jr. as “awful” or his assertion that birth control makes women “angry and bitter.” He didn’t go there. He just condemned the violence.
- Jimmy Kimmel
He had a point. With the investigation still ongoing, the right-wing spin machine had spent the previous weekend trying to convince the public that the killing was the fault of the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, Kimmel also left enough wiggle room for his critics to twist his words, framing him as the villain in a tragedy he clearly denounced.
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
- Rahm Emanuel
It took MAGA World about a week to prove Kimmel’s point again.
As news spread of the shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas, right wingers immediately sought to place the blame on radical left-wing terrorists. Even as it became clear that the only victims of the crime were immigrants held in ICE's custody, suggesting the possibility of a right-wing, anti-immigrant attack, the MAGA narrative machine cycled on.
Leading the charge was FBI Director Kash Patel, who jeopardized possible criminal cases by releasing evidence to the public that was favorable to his political messaging. Is Patel America’s top cop or Trump’s chief propagandist?
Using the shooting as a political weapon, Trump World argues that merely criticizing ICE is a form of incitement. They say it’s not the masked agents dragging people off the street that we should be concerned about; it’s the words used to describe them.
Frankly, it seems almost unfair to compare ICE to the Nazis. Could you imagine the German SS whining about being victims of “verbal assault?” Trump's thin-skinned Gestapo may embrace cruelty, but they lack competence; they can’t even hold onto their guns while detaining one person.
Even as Trump tries to crack down on criticism of ICE, the cruelty persists. In New York, an agent was caught on video assaulting a woman, whose husband had just been taken into custody. She pleaded for mercy to say goodbye. Instead, she was slammed to the ground.
There was no immediate suspension, no accountability, that is, until the video hit the news. That’s not a rogue officer, it's an agency’s culture.
Calling agents like that "Nazis" feels appropriate, but Trump and his followers want to criminalize the words used to call out this behavior. They want apologies, retractions, and self-censorship. They want us to pretend we didn’t mean it.
But I do.
- Rage Against The Machine, “Freedom”
Dr. Diane Ravitch has recognized education advocate Carl Petersen as “a valiant fighter for public schools.” A former Green Party candidate for the LAUSD School Board, Petersen is a passionate voice for special education, shaped by raising two daughters with severe autism. He recently relocated to the State of Washington to embrace his role as “Poppy” to two grandsons. Explore more at www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com.