Even so, Truth Social is the most notable Mastodon instance that blocks everybody else, and from what I've heard, also quite aggressively kicks out people with differing opinions. It's quite explicitly an echo chamber that shields them from opinions they disagree with.

As for not wanting to see transphobic content, I think that's entirely a reasonable position. People shouldn't tolerate abuse. Abuse != "real conversation".

I agree with you that not wanting to see transphobic content is a reasonable position. And yet, I've had a number of people tell me that I'm against free speech for this belief. Heck, I've got a nonbinary friend who teaches at a local university and TPUSA kids all take their class specifically so they can harass my friend with bigoted speech and then whine about their free speech being under attack if anything is done about it.

People are weird.

Yeah, abuse is not speech. There's a difference between voicing your opinion and harassing someone. What's more, harassing someone is often done with the intent to silence them. And even if it's not the intent, it's often the result. Harassers are not defending free speech, they're attacking it.

And even apart from that, I think everybody has a right to choose who they associate with, and that does not have to include harassers. That's more relevant to social media and less to teaching classes of course, which do need to be open to everybody. But if you're choosing to follow a class with the specific purpose to harass someone, there's something deeply wrong with you.

Hugboxes go both ways. mstdn.social is as much a hugbox for the left as Gab and Truth Social are hugboxes for the right. They're all anathema to free speech.