When someone says '"This is not about free speech" it's about free speech.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Similar to "it's not about the money" which is usually a dead giveaway that it's about the money.

When someone wants to censor, muzzle, persecute or otherwise fuck with expression they don't like it usually starts with a claim that whatever is being discussed is not free speech.

How refreshing it would be if folks would just say, "Y'know... I don't support free speech." It wouldn't be an earth-shaking pronouncement. Most people don't support free speech.

The free-speech-is-about-things-I-approve-of mode of "supporting" free speech is related to Republican opposition to torture. "Torture is illegal/evil/unacceptable except in certain extreme cases, like known terrorists." That sentence is too long because all it is really saying is "Torture is good."

As some commentator once said, we do not need the U.S. Constitution to tell us not to torture Doris Day. The entire point of banning torture is that it not be used in extreme cases!

The First Amendment only protects objectionable behavior. Think it through... behavior nobody objects too doesn't need protection. Something no one objects to never makes it into a court room. Something no one objects to is never made against the law. To say I support something nobody objects to isn't a position, it's a given.

Sometimes the "This isn't about free speech..." it is preceded by the "nobody" construction:

"Nobody supports/opposes/cares about x more than I do, but..."

When you hear this construction in any context the person is usually lying or deluded. There are always extant people who wouldn't follow the clause with "but" because they support/oppose/care about x a lot more than the person posing himself as the world's greatest non-racist, supporter of free speech, friend of wild-life, etc..