You don’t have to like or agree with Steven Crowder to know that Carlos Maza et al.’s efforts to deplatform him are not how free speech works. After YouTube announced today that they were demonetizing Crowder’s channel, Ben Shapiro — who has defended plenty of speech he disagrees with — went on a tear:

If @YouTube is now going to police insulting speech — not violent speech, not incitement, not actual fake news — because a virulently censorious, radical activist masquerading as a journalist complains about being insulted, they're a joke. — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 5, 2019

If you're in the public eye, you're going to be mocked and insulted in ways you find deplorable. If your solution is to target the platform for destruction — or to target advertisers who advertise on a wide variety of political programming — you're the actual problem. — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 5, 2019

It's far more dangerous to the country and the discourse to work to shut down the entire public square on behalf of your feelings than it is that people sometimes call you mean names. Grow the f*** up. — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 5, 2019

Okay, if this is the game now, let's play. This nonsense works both ways. Please explain why it doesn't harm the broader @YouTube community when Samantha Bee calls Ivanka Trump a "feckless c***," when Colbert calls Trump a "c*** holster" for Vladimir Putin. https://t.co/6ecL2SKDTM — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 5, 2019

Because neither of those are hate speech? You're a lawyer, Ben, you should be able to grasp nuance. — Rave Bernie (@RaveBernie) June 5, 2019

Please explain the legal standard for "hate speech." I'll wait. Forever. Because there is no such standard in American law. https://t.co/yit1cM5PNf — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 5, 2019

The “standard” seems to be “hate speech is any speech I don’t like.” Which is a pretty lousy excuse for a standard. Double standards seem to be the only standards the Outrage Brigade is interested in:

All, please feel free to reply with your favorite instances of those on the political Left engaging in harmful stereotypes, group judgments, or insulting language on @YouTube. — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 5, 2019

Here’s a start:

Comedy show about the 'All white people are racist' college speech.https://t.co/1t7imrkQcy — Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) June 5, 2019

Asking 30 gay men to respond to the word F*ggot. 561k viewshttps://t.co/2gDhpdzCXx — Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) June 5, 2019

Why God hates F*gs. Tyler Oakley LGBT activist.https://t.co/VloTMbl0vx — Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) June 5, 2019

God Hates a F*g music video mocking Christians.https://t.co/V1rVhhJQwm — Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) June 5, 2019

If YouTube’s going to crack down on so-called “egregious actions,” that’s fine. But they’d better be able to explain why “egregious actions” are only egregious when conservatives do them.