> Good thing it's just a vocal minority.

Are you being sarcastic? The "very vocal minority" has seemingly limitless power to ruin people's lives over words they don't like. Businesses are forced to close, professors are forced to resign. We're passed the point of being able to say "it's just the internet," and it's time we all acknowledged that.

The four highest officials in Virginia just brazened out being in blackface, Steve King still has a job, and the president is... well I won’t go into it. I think you might need to recalibrate your sense of these things.

It's interesting that you only mentioned politicians and not any of the businesses or professors who have been ruined, like I said in my comment. When an internet mob comes for a politician, a political mob fights back. Most people don't have that luxury.

Our freedom of speech is limited in the sense that its expression carries a greater risk. If people are apprehensive about sharing a frank opinion, if the risk is losing a career or family, the corollary is fewer opinions being shared and a smaller social discourse.

Yes, there is still a First Amendment and its protections are still quite robust.

But the same culture of freedom of speech that "we've always had?" Decidedly not. And without that culture, the First Amendment will wither and become eviscerated over time.