Free speech is a facile concept. It is about as meaningless as the abstract notion of freedom itself. Like Uncle Sam is clocking in overtime at the freedom factory so we can all get our freedoms delivered on time or some shit. If you're pro-free speech you're a nerd. If you're anti-free speech you're a nerd.

It is something which has never existed. People are retaliated against all the motherfucking time for telling their managers, landlords, cops, judges, politicians, and administrators of state institutions where they should stick it. But more often than not, there is no way to prove that the retaliation was a motivated by the victim's expression.

As a legal concept, it is utterly useless in practice. Unless you catch your boss on tape incriminating themselves, you have no recourse. If you have power you have the freedom to do whatever you want. If you don't have power, the state will do nothing to stop powerful people from grinding you into the pavement like a bug. And just as long as it isn't the state's shoe doing it, the libertarians are happy.

In conclusion, political power grows from the barrel of a gun.