I never said anything about silencing people critical of policies. I said there is such a thing as public safety. Promoting deceit which materially threatens public safety should not be allowed. The voice of one individual shouting lies from a street corner is not as important as the health of the thousands around him if his lies are putting them in some imminent danger. I would equate it to Jonestown or the Manson Cult. At what point should we be allowed to protect people from malicious (or at least Self Agrandizing) deception? How many people have to die before I’m allowed to punch the liar in the mouth so to speak? Moreover, what about the people who didn’t choose or desire to believe the lies, but were killed as a result of them?
I’m thinking about my Mom here. If I could go back and punch some of the conservatives who lied so incessantly about Covid, if it would have saved my Mom due to less spread of the disease (not due to her belief in their lies mind you), then I surely would have. I’ve begun to view the spread of misinformation detrimental to public health and safety as a cultural form of negligence. People died. It might have been chance, that they died, but their chances of survival could have been drastically improved with fewer deceivers.