The Unspeakable, Shame and the Doorway to Mercy By David Mark Speer
The Unspeakable
The death of free speech in America is no longer a theoretical matter. The right to free expression is being eroded before our very eyes — today, now, and in plain sight. Governments, corporations and media giants are increasingly deciding what we can and cannot say, and most people don’t realize the extent to which their own ability to freely express themselves — by bumper sticker or at a sit-in — is being curtailed.
Therefore it is incumbent upon all of us to realize that with every right comes a responsibility. Just saying you believe in free speech isn’t enough and never has been. Protecting this right means it is every citizen’s duty to see it flourish.
That duty does not, however, extend to wiping out all points of view that disquiet or disturb in service of “rebuilding national character ,” or some similarly nebulous ideal born of fascistic fear-mongering and its reflexive kneel to the power principle exercised. In Utopia, conflict might never arise over speech, free or otherwise; let us one day find that blessed land. In our countries - red/blue, rich/poor, global north/global south – the conflict rages. The point is: most of what we call our free speech debate is a sideshow. The real action lies in topics truly left off the table, which become the unspeakable.
While we argue over celebrity gossip and renamed monuments, real crises — mass deportations, illegal arms deals, government raids — go unnoticed by design. The hijack of our health care delivery system by hucksters and quacks should go unnoticed in favor of denouncing one deranged gunman ad infinitum, or so the oligarchy needs us to believe.
The reactionary forces of right-wing bigotry (led by Musk as the face of what they are selling as conservatism) now push the idea of free speech “absolutism,” and actively seek to limit access to facts that run counter to their agenda. They hope we quietly fall prey to the algorithm sleepwalking us into an authoritarian dystopia, and that most ignore the erosion of their civil liberties as long as their material needs are mostly met. Don’t aspire to change the status quo and just let the people in charge handle things. Meanwhile, you still get to think of yourself as privileged above queers and women and wetbacks and anyone else black or brown. Remain incurious, revel in blissful stupidity when it comes to the basics of how government really works.
Corporate-control of the media allows for the suppression of viewpoints contrary to the oligarchy. Pro-Palestinian voices have been silenced on Instagram and X, by erasing content that challenges dominant narratives. Concurrently, universities like Columbia stand supposedly helpless and definitely complicit in turning over their campuses to immigration stormtroopers who attempt to deport people with green cards over protected protests. The book bans and limits on platforms like Tik Tok work in concert with the heavy hand of oppression and these efforts by government and corporations drive home the point that free speech and access to the widest range of scholarship, literature and art are under an assault like no other in contemporary memory. And there’s nothing theoretical about it — the last year alone has seen journalists ostracized and many pro-Palestinian voices on Instagram and X have been silence and removed. Meanwhile, the federal Department of Education is threatened with eradication.
An action step in resistance that must be taken now is the widespread and active preservation — in their unexpurgated form — of works threatened with bans (Alice Walker to Sinead O’Connor) and distributing the work on media not connected to the internet. Yes, photocopied zines and newsletters and flash drives may indeed be the backwards-looking way forward to accomplish the vital task of saving the truth from the distortionists’ grasp.
This free speech “absolutism” isn’t about openness — the aim is to control the narrative (in Bannon’s own parlance, “flooding the zone”). Nowhere is this clearer than in the ideological and operational takeover of Voice of America, where objectivity has been replaced by unchecked propaganda. Musk and his grim coterie of brigands and hatemongers have turned Twitter into X which became a cesspool of hate speech with legitimately qualified journalists banned from the platform. The commercial angle for Musk and his cabal of thieves is difficult to overstate; one major incentive for crypto speculators to target African markets hinges on leveraging existing consumer behavior (the widespread and fast adoption of digital wallets and messaging apps) into investment activity (sinking everything into the wild frontier of 21st century finance). And you know you can trust it – it was on Voice of America.
Shame – Is There A Recommended Healthy Daily Dose?
The limits placed on what is usually meant by “free speech” are imposed mainly by custom and the sincere desire to avoid giving offense. The little white lie and other forms of polite discourse are very different from the concerted effort to suppress thought and thwart corrective action for the corrosive effects of backward-leaning anti-democracy crusaders. In many ways, this used to be referred to as a healthy sense of shame.
On the face of it, shame is a bad thing. Embarrassment, humiliation and an acknowledgment of failure are all part of shame, as is the feeling of low self-esteem when compared to others. These are natural feelings, complex and only navigated with degrees of success at any given time, by each of us in their own way. The sense of shame that relates to free speech has more to do with a lack of boundaries encouraged by the most selfish, crude aspects of American culture. Exposing oneself (as in nudity or otherwise) carries less and less stigma — so much less that it is hard to advocate for any limit on expression when anything indeed goes, faster and faster every day.
Given that to be seen as “shameless” is considered a good thing by many, it is worth noting that the lack of boundaries signals an emptiness, a feeling that one’s most private thoughts and emotions aren’t precious enough to protect and preserve as one’s own and no one else’s. We might all be a bit better off without the oversharing and open-book nature of social media (along with the way that it bleeds into our real-world interactions; look up “brain rot”) but that doesn’t mean platforms should restrict what and how their users present.
Finding a way through actual human discourse, conversations – to give each other space to keep something of their inner selves to themselves while authentically sharing that which uplifts and edifies sounds impossible and might well be. We’ll never know if the attempt is never made. In the context of political speech, it is true that often liberals and progressives spend more time worrying about the exact wording of resolutions than getting anything done – even if at the end of the meeting everyone felt heard, seen and validated. That’s a behavior quirk that can be fixed. Once people get a taste of collective action working the right way, the adversarial approach loses its luster.
To put it simply, magically changing the name of every remaining high school mascot denigrating Indigenous people overnight wouldn’t change life on the reservation for anybody, anywhere or by any means. That doesn’t make such reform an unworthy goal, just beside the point to a degree and only a start and downpayment on repairing generations of theft, scorn and disrespect. Not to mention how much easier it is to argue about on a cable news show than say, the solutions to infant mortality, PTSD or suicide rates higher across the board than found in the general population (all from NIH, 2019, 2022 & CDC 2024 data).
Finding a re-commitment to the unspeakable, keeping those topics most relevant to the wide swath of humanity front, center and top of mind – battling food insecurity, the loneliness epidemic, gun violence and climate change, to name only a few – is the minefield we must march. Getting through successfully will entail progressives saying the high-minded without looking down their noses while doing it and the racist/misogynist/self-hater must find it within themselves to banish the demons and live with that healthy dose of shame that keeps one from becoming the sum of their own fears and nothing more.
Is Free Speech the Key to Mercy’s Door?
In the mind of the free speech “absolutist,” there is no room for discussion of the Triangular Trade, the Middle Passage, or the Auction Block because those days – they contend – are behind us. To remind everyone of these things, of ignominy from the past that colors our lives to this day, just brings everybody down by wallowing in the past when the promise of America they say is always around the next corner. The days of cruelty and violence and inequality are with us just as surely as we live and breathe.
No scrubbing of websites or re-writing of history changes the autocrats’ now-exposed nature or their agenda. Only an appeal to the one of the most powerful impulses known to humanity — mercy — may serve as an antidote to the poisoned winds sweeping our plains and cities.
Part of the ceremonies surrounding the presidential inauguration featured a sermon by Bishop Mariann E. Budde where she called upon the incoming president to be merciful toward those in fear of consequences his stated policy goals will bring. There was nothing directly partisan in the Bishop’s message — it was the kind of counsel religious leaders often provide to our elected officials, for good or ill in a society becoming more irreligious by the generation — but true to form, the unfit, unstable and temperamental president took offense. And quickly calls came from other pastors for an apology since Bishop Budde broke protocol (by some views) in preaching thusly to the president, appealing directly to him specifically for mercy on his second first day on his new, old job.
The insistence on protocol over practical truth, along with attempts to mischaracterize a call for mercy as being somehow unpatriotic or personally motivated points up how completely devoted the right-wing is to making certain topic areas so radioactive so as to make them unspeakable. The political utility of mercy has been long debated with the argument usually centering on whether such pardons or clemency encourage moral hazard in the long run, which is a poli-sci question with real-world answers.
For any government to behave mercifully is for it to do what Pope Francis has written, that is, to use the concept and practice of fratelli tutti, (“commanded love”) to, “... create more sound institutions, more just regulations, more supportive structures…” through which the dignity of humankind is preserved and the fruits of progress are shared more equitably among all. [Encyclical #186 of Pope Francis] If developed mercifully, our institutions, regulations and structures will be more effective at preserving life and fostering the vibrant creativity and entrepreneurial spirit vital for renewing the world, perhaps even saving it from itself.
Preserving the right to tell the truth about our nation’s origins (here including some mainstays like police departments and birthright citizenship) while that right is under multi-directional assault from revisionists and denialists, apologists for the brutal dictator in Russia (or the wannabe right here at home) and those who would welcome Atwood’s stark vision of Gilead into their own homes (and yours too, since you can’t be trusted to make your own choices) – these are the exhausting and seemingly insurmountable challenges of our time.
Somehow maintaining the strength we will all need so much more desperately than ever to hold onto the right to free expression is the first and most vital key to honoring the responsibility that comes with the gift’s inherent power. That fortitude is bolstered immeasurably with every act of sacrifice, each kindness performed without thought of reward and all defenses of the powerless.
It was once said if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. In this context, that is absolutely wrong. Silence isn’t neutrality – it is complicity. The time to fight for free speech isn’t when it is gone — it’s right now, today. With the spirit of noble Resistance to efforts to turn back the clock animating us, let us make it as plain as the social justice warriors of ACT-UP used to during its valiant struggle — Silence equals death.
DAVID MARK SPEER
#ThePoeticProtest
SOAPBOX’s Senior Featured Writer & Exclusive Critical Thought Columnist
Brooklyn-based literary insurgent David Mark Speer fuses sacred insight with cultural rebellion. From underground zines to indie anthologies, his words don’t whisper — they cut.
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