Harvey Silverglate

direct threats or an exception.

If you say such and such, I will murder you.

That is not lawful.

If you say about somebody, oh, you beat your wife, that is not lawful if, in fact, the person knows you don't beat your wife.

There are some limits.

Defamation is one.

Direct threats are another.

So the first amendment is not absolute, but it's more absolute than it is in any other society and it's pretty near absolute.

For example, fraud.

If you sell somebody a car and you say, oh, this is in great running shape and in fact it's an old jalopy and it's not gonna make it more than 10 miles, that's fraud.

That's not free speech.

So free speech is not absolute.

There are these limits, but they're very narrow, specific categories of limits.

You have to defend yourself.

We're through freedom of speech.

We're big boys and girls.

You have to defend yourself.

You know, in some societies, if you say something, right now, if you say something nasty about Putin, you'll end up in the gulag.

If you say something nasty about Putin,

Biden, you end up in the New York Times.