Online speech restrictions make sense up to a point. There is a reasonable line in there somewhere. Twitter is going way to far in only one direction, so almost all of us see its restrictions are unreasonable and probably unsustainable. This situation illustrates 1) the importance of lines, and 2) that lines are necessarily fuzzy, and 3) that even fuzzy lines have to be firm in the right places.

Over the past six decades, USA has waffled too much on our fuzzy lines, both legal and cultural. Fuzzy lines are hard to draw and hard to keep firm. Trump’s border wall is an example of a successful firm fuzzy line as were his immigration policies. TBH, gay marriage probably went to far. It crossed a fuzzy line of accepting homosexuality probably too much. Once crossed, all manner of gender “rights” have made even human identities fuzzy. Today, “abortion rights” are even beginning to include the right to kill your “perinatal” infant.

In thinking about fuzzy lines it is crucial that we all recognize that all cultures are fundamentally held together by Lowest Common Denominator behavioral rules and as such are kind of stupid and very easy to attack. All cultures are held together with fuzzy lines. No culture is perfect. All cultures can be destabilized by constantly pushing against their fuzzy lines. Some pushing is good. Too much pushing is bad. Don’t make perfect be the enemy of good enough. Don’t allow woke to be the enemy of reason. Or anyone’s sexuality or identity the enemy of a reasonably well-functioning society. It’s not easy to do this right but it is not impossible either and it must be done or chaos ensues. ABN