Americans are not protected from being offended. Because of the mis-education of what the freedom of speech actually entails, everybody sort just spouts whatever they want, whenever they want thinking that they cannot have consequences whatsoever. And most of those people crying "But... Freedom of Speech!!" are the ones saying hateful, prejudice, and/or violent things.
I also think that certain people do think they have the right to silence others & actively exercise that belief. In the instance of most debates I have had with guys about any sort of social justice issue it is particularly common that they try and shut me up because I am a very passionate debater. I can get very intense sometimes & guys most of the time are like "woah, calm down" or something. In the case of racial arguments it is VERY typical that someone tries to silence my voice not only because I am a woman and anything "angry" that comes out of my mouth automatically categorises me as "crazy" or "psycho" but also because I am black I must always put white feelings in front of my own in conversation in a sense that I can't talk about slavery or racial injustices at the fault of white people.
