We are seeing such widespread and severe (literally lethal) censorship in the U.S. that I find the discussion here jaw-dropping. Does no one on this site read the news?

This is the current lead story on the NYT.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/us/politics/trump-cnn-msn...

Trump banned disfavored news outlets from the White House.

He also tried to take TV stations off the air for hosting comics who made fun of him, cut funding for public broadcasters in order to "punish or suppress disfavored expression", scrubbed information from government websites, and endeavored to punish "woke" universities.

https://universityobserver.ie/silencing-late-night-censorshi...

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/31/media-broadcasting-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_government_onlin...

https://apnews.com/article/harvard-trump-funding-appeal-f652...

People have been arrested for writing editorials he didn't like:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_R%C3%BCmeysa_%C3%...

Hundreds have been arrested for protesting against ICE:

https://www.democracynow.org/2026/4/21/caught_crackdown_thom...

ICE agents have murdered two protesters to date.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Ren%C3%A9e_Good

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Alex_Pretti

>Elon presumably being an exemplar for current trends

He is that: he is using lawfare to silence people criticizing X for hosting and funding white supremacists.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/x-twitter-elon-mus...

https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-media-matters-lawsuit-a...

I think hundreds of people being arrested for their protected speech is a more objectionable form of censorship than a few Twitter bans.