I am a traditonal liberal. I've read John Stuart Mill, John Locke, Rousseau, etc., as well as Thomas Payne and Thomas Jefferson and others. There are very real reasons not to have limits to free expression.

It was not put into the Constitution to protect pornographers or reddit users, but to protect political and religious speech. In England, people could be thrown in jail for criticizing the monarchy or having the wrong religious leanings. In China, today, people are persecuted if they don't toe the Communist party line.

I'm against the government controlling speech or thought. If someone threatens violence, that is different. Feel free to disagree with me. Part of being a liberal is that I support your right to disagree with me!

With the Capitol insurrection - yes, it was wrong. Yet if you look at the footage - not all of them seemed to be involved in actual rebellion. The police seemed to be letting them enter, and some of them seemed to think it was just a lark. Others actually did real damage. The thing is they needed to be quickly charged and tried - some of them deserve significant jail time but others might just deserve a slap on the wrist.

Again, what is interesting - under President Andrew Jackson, a horde of "commoners" invaded the White House at his inauguration! They did a fair amount of damage because the crowds were so huge and they were so enthusiastic about his becoming President!

Here is a link: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/not-a-ragged-mob-the-inauguration-of-1829

Also, recently, fans of Stephen Colbert broke into the White House. It's all very strange.