Unpopular Opinions and Free Speech

It never ceases to amaze me how all those advocates of 'free speech' in the press start champing at the bit and demanding arrests and prosecutions when somebody says something that they don't agree with.  Now, I'm no fan of Kneecap or 'Bob Vylan', (they collectively strike me as typical on-the-make media grifters who latch onto whatever the latest fashionable cause is, despite having only a playground-level grasp of the issues involved, for the purposes of publicity -yeah, I know, I'm a cynical bastard, but I've seen it all before), and I certainly wouldn't endorse their calls to 'kill the IDF' or their apparent support for terror groups, but surely they all were just exercising their right to free speech?  You don't have to agree with what they are saying, or to not criticise them if you think that they are wrong, but surely we're all supposed to uphold the principle that they have every right to say it?  To do otherwise would, surely, be hypocritical?  But we're talking about the right here, (or at least, their press mouthpieces), so hypocrisy is par for the course and shouldn't surprise anyone.  We're back to the fact that, for them, 'free speech' only applies to people expressing the 'right' unpopular views - anyone expressing the 'wrong' unpopular views need to be literally cancelled by being locked up.  Of course, this kneecap/'Bob Vylan' business is a gift to the right-wing rags, giving them the opportunity to hit out, not just at these degenerate leftist rappers (as they doubtless view them), but also the BBC, the Glastonbury Festival and 'young people' in general, all favourite targets.

 The controversy also  provides an interesting counterpoint to claims by various Trump Administration figures - most notable Vice President J D Vance - that the UK doesn't have 'proper' free speech, (they've even had the audacity to send some kind of 'commission' to the UK to 'investigate' the situation - they really should have been turned back at Heathrow - richly ironic considering the human rights abuses currently being perpetrated in the US).  Because, if we don't have 'free speech' and place restrictions upon what people are allowed to say, how can they explain the fact that these guys were allowed to spout off like that, expressing opinions that the Trump Administration decry (and which currently would get you 'disappeared' in the US)?  What Vance and co can now observe is how in the UK you can say whatever you like publicly - but have to accept the consequences if it turns out to contravene laws on things like defamation, hate speech, either religious or racial, incitement to violence and the like.  Now, whether anything that the idiots at Glastonbury came out with actually contravenes any of these regulations is a matter for the police and ultimately the courts to decide.  Frankly, incitement to violence seems unlikely, after all, the average Glastonbury goer who heard these chants of 'Kill the IDF' are highly unlikely to take them literally and go off to Gaza to try and murder some Israeli soldiers.  (In contrast to that Tory councillor's wife who tweeted, in the aftermath of the Southport killings, that people should burn down hotels housing asylum seekers - which idiots duly went out and tried to do, securing her a prison sentence for incitement).   Hate speech - maybe, but last time I looked the IDF itself is simply a military organisation, not a racial or religious group.  As for Kneecap and their Hezbollah and Hamas flags well, really, who cares?  They're just pretentious poseurs and to prosecute them would simply give them the publicity they crave.  The saddest thing about all of this is the fact that these sorts of undergraduate-level antics and the reactions of the right apparently constitute the best we can muster in the UK in terms of a public debate on what's actually happening in Gaza right now and whether Israel should be held accountable for its actions.  Pretty pathetic, really.