By Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post

In the past 12 months, popular Internet discourse has been severely afflicted with a malady we’ll call the PCs. There’s a lot of bellyaching, in short, over the perceived encroachment of “political correctness” and the persecution of “free speech.” First Gamergate griped that it was being silenced; then users cried censorship over Twitter’s more aggressive abuse policies; now Reddit, in a much-debated about-face, is zapping its most racist communities.

But here’s a little reassurance/reality check for you: Regardless of the rules private companies pass, the U.S. still has some of the strongest protections of Internet speech anywhere. If you want to say something racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, anti-feminist, anti-corporate, cruel, subversive or incendiary — this, my friends, is your country.

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