The shallow claim that Jimmy Kimmel’s downfall is “about economics” dodges the real issue: the erosion of the First Amendment under the disguise of market forces. Comedy has always been political—from Lenny Bruce to George Carlin—because satire exposes lies that power depends on. Reducing censorship to “advertisers” is like calling book burnings “inventory control.”
The First Amendment does not protect speech only when profitable; it protects the unpopular, the inconvenient, the uncomfortable. Pretending otherwise is submission dressed as analysis. When dissent is silenced through intimidation and economic strangulation, that is not the market at work—it is authoritarian censorship with a balance sheet.
Free speech is not a slogan. It is a barrier against tyranny. When you excuse its erosion with jargon, you help tyranny advance without firing a shot.
