In particular, "anonymous speech is required if you want to have free speech" is actually a very niche position, not a mainstream one. It just happens to be widely spammed in certain online cultures.

Correct.

I am staunch believer in the moral and societal good of free speech.

Anonymous speech is far more dubious.

Like, protests seem valuable. Protests while wearing robes and masks however...

> Protests while wearing robes and masks however

This is absolutely permitted in America. It is illegal in countries like Germany which have no strong free speech protections.

No. It is not "absolutely permitted in America".

They're Klan Acts, because a bunch of guys in masks and robes marching through is obviously a threat of violence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-mask_law

Those laws are frequently overturned as unconstitutional, but may still remain on the books because we don't do a good job of clearing out laws that were ruled unconstitutional.

As a general rule of thumb, almost every time someone brings an edge case about whether or not speech is First Amendment-privileged before SCOTUS, SCOTUS rules in favor of the speech. (The main exception is speech of students in school.) SCOTUS hasn't specifically ruled on anti-mask laws to my knowledge, but I strongly doubt it would uphold those laws.

The last court case was 2004, and the New York anti-mask was upheld.

You don’t have to pontificate. The link was right there.

Random aside, I haven’t seen NY enforce the anti mask legislation during the Halloween parade, various protests, or Covid. So I bet a new constitutional challenge could be erected.

You're trolling right?

There’s no issue protesting in masks. Antifa did it all the time with no repercussions.

Protests while wearing robes and masks protect the protester from followup action, and it also protects their families.

If you assume a just government that doesnt demand revenge for every petty slight, you are living in a fantasy land.

There are places where it wouldn't be safe to protest without masks. In that case people effectively would be losing their freedom of speech if it isn't anonymous.

America has a very long tradition of anonymity being part of free speech, going back to the Federalist Papers. This is not some new online issue.

Wealthy, politically connected men with the ability to read and write about political philosophy and get it distributed is a bit different situation than a thousand Russian AI trollbots posting bad-faith "opinions" on American current events.