I’m interested in getting a foldable eventually, but I think it’s still too soon and too costly.

Sorry dude. I know you really really want to be taken seriously, but it’s just not gonna happen. Defamation laws have been around for millennia (50 years of case law? Lol) and they’re just one tiny example of regulation of speech. If you don’t believe political propaganda on social media should be regulated exactly the same way, you probably lack the mental acuity to understand the concepts of cause and effect. Or you’re just arguing in bad faith as well. We could go on for hours about the excesses of extra-woke cancel culture and how they are detrimental to discourse, but since you decided to open with “Nazi propaganda is free speech” I’m pretty sure it would be a huge waste of time.

No, I definitely cannot read. Can write, but can’t really read, sorry. My lack of mental acuity doesn’t help. Libel and slander? Oh my, I wonder what those words mean. Are they, perhaps, social constructs that exist to prevent the consequences of harmful communication? Like… Regulation of speech?? Like… laws? Wait, but isn’t speech supposed to be free??? Why are they taking away our rights like this???

I suggest you call the nearest mall and tell them you placed a bomb in there. It’s just free speech, it’s not like you actually put a bomb there, you’re just saying it, so it’s fine. If they don’t like it they just can hang up and move on. I think it will be a totally fun and safe experience for you to try and that there will be absolutely no consequences for anyone involved, because that’s how free speech works.

Or maybe, I don’t know, you could pick someone you don’t like and start telling people that they’re a pedophile! It doesn’t even have to be true, it’s just free speech. You are free to say whatever you want! And if someone wanted to do the same thing to you, it should absolutely be their right to do so! Free speech for everyone! It’s literally free!

I dont think so. Why would morality inhibit progress. Stale knowledge does prevent, but morals dont really change. By morals being flexible, I mean - “Killing is very bad, except in so and so situations, you have to”.

You assume that what’s considered “moral” or ethical hasn’t changed multiple times throughout history and that it isn’t subjective. Sorry to sound pedantic, but once again, it’s right in the definition of the word:

a person’s standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do.

And nowhere does it say that “morals” imply any degree of immutability. There are countless examples I could make. Just as a personal example, I never particularly paid mind to the suffering of animals until I adopted a pet. I never believed getting involved in political discourse was a duty until I realized how increasingly distorted it’s becoming. Many people say similar things about having children, how the experience just changes the way you see the world, your perception of what is tolerable and what is not, and ultimately your perception of “right” and “wrong”: your morals.

If we as humans didn’t believe that we can actually influence other people’s conceptions of what’s right or wrong, there would be no point to education, history, politics, philosophy, law, religion, art, literature… culture as a whole. We wouldn’t have communication or civilization.

My honest opinion is that what you’re truly asking here isn’t whether it’s okay/possible for morals to be flexible, you’re asking whether it’s okay to stray from what you’ve always perceived to be the general consensus of what is “moral” and what isn’t. And my answer is still yes.

Since you used media as an example, let me use another common trope to answer. Do you know when in horror or thriller movies a character momentarily gets the upper hand on the killer by knocking them unconscious and then just tries to run away without even making sure that the killer is dead or at least arming themselves? Does that EVER end well?

The reason that trope is so common is that it’s very effective at eliciting the sort of instinctive emotional response that makes us as viewers want to yell “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?? KILL HIM!!” at the screen.

We have that instinct for a reason.

To answer your question more directly, yes, morals ARE inherently flexible. If they weren’t, we would never learn anything or progress as a society or even as individuals. I don’t know where the idea that someone’s morals are supposed to be immutable even comes from. One of the core steps to psychological well-being is realizing that you have no direct control over your “environment”, but you absolutely have direct control over the actions you take to influence it and the way you adapt and react to it, which includes letting go of standards and expectations you’ve set for yourself if you feel that it’s necessary.

Absolutes are not applicable in reality. You’ve mentioned utopias too, and well, the fun thing about utopias is that they don’t exist. They can’t exist. It’s the literal definition of the word: “an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.” Dystopia, on the other hand, is what happens when you try to force a utopia into existence.

Morals can’t be absolute. Tolerance can’t be absolute. Everything is flexible and eternally changing. It’s scary and it’s complex but people have to come to terms with it.