Freedom of speech is literally a constitutional amendment. It might also be an American cultural value, but it's absurd to say it's not a constitutional amendment.
Non-US person here so please excuse my ignorance. What amendment covers speech that doesn't involve the government. This is what I found on wikipedia about the 1st:
> Although the First Amendment applies only to state actors, there is a common misconception that it prohibits anyone from limiting free speech, including private, non-governmental entities.
If you personally believe in freedom of speech, then you will give your political opponents a platform to disagree with you and debate them on the merits (if any) of their arguments. This principle of honor is what motivated the first amendment and so people confuse the principle with the amendment.
The amendment is just one minor manifestation of a very fundamental cultural value. People who do not believe in freedom of speech will often excuse curtailment of it when such curtailment is not prohibited by the amendment, as freedom of speech is just that one law. So no, the amendment LITERALLY is not what freedom of speech is.
Yeah but one of those we have encoded into law, and the other is just vibes. What you define as a freedom of speech and what I do may be different. How should we adjudicate which one is correct in terms of how our laws are enforced?
