I guess that would depend upon what one defines as speech. People say you can't shout "FIRE" in a crowded movie theater. That to me isn't speech it's just about control. NYC just passed a law you cant' call illegal immigrants "illegal immigrants" any longer. That is the erosion of our rights. When the government insists on telling me that I must use the phrase Undocumented instead it's plain WRONG.
@4meAndyou My understanding is that in SF and LA, the city council is mostly to blame. People have called them flat out communists. I'm less familiar with you situation in NYC.
If you practised absolute freedom of speech, you would be beaten to a pulp in places like New York, and probably killed by Anti-fa if you were practising same in Portland Oregon.
You can't start shouting nasty satanic language and so on inside a church during services, and you should probably not go to the middle of Harlem and start shouting the N word unless you are inside a Sherman tank. You can't shout "Crackers!" in the middle of one of those white boy rallies, and you can't shout homophobic slurs in the middle of a gay pride parade.
Basically, your own safety would be at issue in most of these instances.
This is am important aspect of the American culture. It is the First Amendment. But now today, we find ourselves in a situation where the press has the full protections of the First Amendment whether they state the truth or not, but the citizens of this country do no longer have free speech, they are condemned, ridiculed, victimized, and sometimes even imprisoned for what I would dare to say, for speaking the truth.
there are exclusions, freedom of speech isn't a right to slander, spread false truths, and incite violence; and many are guilty of it, especially the media