Freedom of speech should have been criminalized a long time ago, before the wrong people got control of what kind of speech was going to be permitted. On the other hand, I don't think anyone who could have made that happen had any idea how bad things were going to get.
The US used to have freedom of speech. Criminalizing this is how Europe got replaced.
The US is in a worse position than Europe demographically.
Freedom of speech should have been criminalized a long time ago, before the wrong people got control of what kind of speech was going to be permitted. On the other hand, I don't think anyone who could have made that happen had any idea how bad things were going to get.