That's literally not free speech. If I say I like to eat broccoli every day and that people should try it for health reasons and you're some kind of carnivore mod and it tickles you the wrong way and you block me for it... That's censorship and the opposite of free speech.

You're telling me that you control the narrative. Now there's nuance to censorship for sure, but you're telling me that if you don't like what I say I'm out. I have to type within the confines of the bubble of what isn't too uncomfortable for you.

I say let the downvotes do the talking. If I go on the electric vehicles instance talking about how (non-ironocally) I love to roll coal and how that's what's keeping me from trying EVs, I expect to be downvoted into the shadow realm. And that's ok. What I'm not ok with is a mod assuming that my voice sucks and that I don't deserve to be heard. Maybe some smart lemmier(?) will point out some doodad that makes a brrr noise and shoots out some harmless mist or something.