XKCD and the erosion of enlightenment culture

This is the worst comic XKCD has published:

We shouldn't be angry at Randall Munroe for publishing it, however.  We should be thankful.  The comic in question signaled two very important facts about our current times:

• People no longer understand that the point of free speech is to allow people to communicate ideas others don't want communicated.
• People confuse a small cadre of powerful people — say, a corporation like Twitter — censoring someone, with the general public disliking that someone, or what that someone has to say.

This state of affairs is a severe degeneration of Western culture and values in action.

Randall merely let us know that had happened already, and he himself had become part of those degenerates.