What We’re Not Allowed to Say Anymore by David Mark Speer
The death of free speech in America is no longer a theoretical matter. The right to free expression is being eroded before our very eyes — today, now, and in plain sight. The time to protect it isn’t when it’s gone — the time is right now.
By their stranglehold control of platforms and networks, governments, corporations, and media giants are increasingly deciding what we can and cannot say, making it more urgently incumbent upon all of us to realize that just saying you believe in free speech isn’t enough — and never has been. Protecting this right means it is every citizen’s duty to see it flourish.
But most of what we call the “free speech debate” today is a sideshow. The real crises — mass deportations, illegal arms deals, government raids — are routinely drowned out by celebrity gossip and social media outrage. What’s being left unsaid is far more dangerous than what’s being shouted.
What’s Really Being Censored?
It’s not just the fringe or the offensive that gets suppressed — it’s the inconvenient. Pro-Palestinian voices have been silenced on platforms like Instagram and X, with content quietly erased and accounts quietly throttled. Book bans are sweeping school districts across the U.S., not to protect students from “harm,” but to prevent them from reading about power, race, and resistance. Even institutions once thought sacrosanct — like universities — are now complicit, turning over protestors to ICE, or remaining silent as political repression unfolds on campus lawns.
This isn’t about protecting discourse. It’s about controlling it.
As Steve Bannon himself once bragged, the goal is to “flood the zone with shit.” Drown the signal in so much noise that the truth can’t get through. It’s working.
The Corporate Capture of Truth
We have crossed into an era where objectivity has been replaced with brand management. The takeover of Voice of America, the gutting of public broadcasting, the defunding of arts institutions — all serve a common purpose: strip away the spaces where truth might still be told.
Meanwhile, tech moguls sell us a fantasy of “speech absolutism” while banning journalists, boosting hate speech, and pushing crypto imperialism into the Global South. The oligarchs are not trying to liberate thought — they’re trying to monetize silence.
What We Must Preserve
The action step isn’t subtle: preserve what they’re trying to erase. Keep distributing banned works — from Alice Walker to Sinead O’Connor. Reboot underground zines. Save your PDFs. Print the essays. Pass the flash drive. Build a culture of memory that lives outside the algorithm.
In the days of the Underground Railroad, symbols helped travelers communicate beyond the reach of authorities. Today, we need modern equivalents: decentralized tools, analog truth-telling, and moral courage.
Because the question isn’t whether censorship exists. It’s whether we’re willing to speak what we’re told to forget.
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DAVID MARK SPEER
#ThePoeticProtest
SOAPBOX’s Senior Featured Writer & Exclusive Critical Thought Columnist
Brooklyn-based literary insurgent David Mark Speer fuses sacred insight with cultural rebellion. From underground zines to indie anthologies, his words don’t whisper — they cut.
🗓️ New columns drop the first & last Thursday of every month.
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