Funny. Before that, the "woke leftists" called it "consequences". Or did you think freedom of speech from government reprisal meant your friends wouldn't call you an asshole for being one?
This is really what freedom of speech is about the ability to communicate thoughts and ideas without reprisal. Whether that reprisal is from the state, society or friends it's all part of the same equation.
Freedom of speech has never been the same thing as consequence-free speech. For example, in theory, freedom of speech gives you the right to advocate the violent overthrow of the government, but if you actually succeed in getting a mob to form and somebody dies, you can still be punished even though your freedom of speech likely protected you from any prior restraint on that initial advocacy.
Psychological safety, however, does require at least freedom from unreasonable levels of reprisal. If speech isn't actively trying to cause someone harm, then causing someone physical or psychological harm for that speech, threatening their jobs, taking away things they care about, or generally treating them as less than human for being honest is not okay, period, full stop, and if anybody disagrees with that, they can f**k themselves with a wooden spoon.
This is not to say that people should ignore flagrant intolerance, ageism, misogyny, misandry, bigotry in any form, etc., but 99.99% of the time, when somebody thinks that's what's going on, that's not what's actually going on. And disagreeing with a person doesn't give someone the right to be a complete a**hole to that person.
Basically, as a society, at some point along the way, we seem to have forgotten that other people are human beings just like us. And the world is f**ked up enough without people going full vigilante on anyone they don't understand or they disagree with or they don't like for whatever reason and treating those people like s**t and trying to ruin their lives. Cancel culture is f**king bulls**t, whether it is coming from the left, the right, the center, the front, or the back.
That's why if there's only one thing that you impart upon the next generation, teach your kids this: Always assume good intentions in others until proven otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt. Treat others with the respect that you would want to be treated if someone disagreed with you, didn't understand you, was angry at you, was afraid of you, was hurt by you, or just generally didn't like you. In other words, don't be an a**hole.
Freedom is fundamentally underwritten by tolerance and integrity. This is the opposite of cowardice and intolerance pervasive in modern society especially among younger generations.
Not just younger generations. That sort of bad behavior has always been around. The only difference I see is that a lot of younger people no longer seem to be ashamed of their bad behavior, and for that, I blame their parents for failing to teach them to treat others the way they would want to be treated.
Also, complaining about the youth of today has always been around. We’re just getting old.