They were not these person's "clients", they were the government clients of the company employing him/her. I would have expected the US employees to still have the freedom to say "fuck you!" to their government, even though said government might be on the list of one employer's clients.

More generally, one shouldn't have to give up his/her personal rights to say "fuck you!" to the government once he/she enters an employment contract.

Just because you retain the right to say F U to your government doesn't mean you have the right to say F U to your employer's customers while acting in the context of such employment.

They absolutely do have that right. They even exercised that right. The government did not send police to their house to arrest them. There are many governments that would.

What they don't have is freedom from consequences. They don't have imnunity from being fired.

And perhaps that is a problem in a world where it costs an individual a lot if they are fired, and it (typically) costs a company much less. The result is a chilling effect on the right to criticize the government via corporate punishment, and just because it's technically legal or laundered through a corporation's actions doesn't mean it's a good effect to let continue.

> The government did not send police to their house to arrest them

A government official used his position of power to get a critic fired over a personal insult.

I'm not sure what "free speech" is good for if government officials can just get you kicked from your job for exercising it.

Canceling people for their offensive comments is hardly something new.

DoD assets weren’t needed. Any customer would have the same power to object to this.

There's a great Mine Monteiro talk about contracting titled, "Fuck you; Pay me", so yes, it's not unheard of at all.

I’d like to see you actually using this as a sales pitch to your client.

Hilariously enough, here's some blog thought leader who's telling founders to do so as an exercise while writing up their pitch decks:

https://www.alexanderjarvis.com/the-pitch-deck-fuck-you-list...

> What is the fuck you list? Simply put, it’s what you tell Billy Bob to get him to shut the fuck up, and as someone who hates you, still make him think what you are doing actually makes sense.

> The fuck you list are 3-5 key points about why your business is amazing and you are going to win. They are the important points you would feel annoyed for having not conveyed when you leave that big meeting with the investor you really want to close.

We have arrived at peak HN.

You and I roll in very different circles. I've had clients who told me to go fuck myself (and vice versa) without any real damage to our relationship.

A New Yorker using the expression is just frankly a different reading than a Washington DC type.