Can we talk about something that feels increasingly controversial, but probably shouldn't be?

Free speech. It's the actual backbone of any real democracy. Not in theory—in practice.

Here's the thing: you can't build a healthy society by micromanaging what people say, cherry-picking which opinions get through, or playing gatekeeper about what ideas are "acceptable" to hear.

That's not freedom. That's just curated control.

When you filter, you decide. When you decide, you limit. And once you start limiting what people can think about, you've already moved past democracy into something else.

It's a principle worth defending—especially in spaces built on the promise of decentralization and open participation.