Here's an honest conversation. You're the one with a bad take. The "free speech isn't without consequences" idea has much more nuance that you're apparently not seeing. 99% of the time, any sort of censorship that's justified, that justification should be directly related to consequences that go beyond speech and opinions. To use your own example during COVID, people were being censored (or in most cases, statements annotated) to quash the spread of conspiracy nonsense, disinformation, misinformation and relay to the public factual scientific info directly related to an ongoing health crisis. Lives being at stake is a much different scenario from precious MAGA snowflake feelings getting hurt.