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I mean, a lot of very smart people told me that you shouldn’t be allowed to say things like “masks don’t work”. They also said hate speech isn’t free speech. Who am I to argue?

Personally I found everything in the article to be ludicrous and to have Jack-all to do with the First Amendment, but I am not very smart.

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Withholding federal funds from colleges for not cracking down hard enough on speech the government doesn’t like isn’t related to the first amendment? Or it is but it’s ludicrous?

1A is not about federal funds.

I can imagine you saying "1A isn't about hellfire missiles" after airstrikes on political enemies.

The 1A is regularly used to decide cases about funding as speech; Rosenberger v. University of Virginia for example forbade U of V from withholding funds from religious news organizations on campus.

I am sure there are arguments that this behavior is within the bounds of the constitution but the 1A definitely applies.

Did they say "you shouldn't be allowed to say those things" or did they say "you shouldn't say those things"? Pretty big difference.

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