Don't Mess With My Freedom of Speech!

It is common to hear someone retort "What about my/his/her/our Freedom of Speech?" when somebody disagrees with a person's comment:
For example:
"I think Jimmy Carter was in the top 5 of best presidents." - person 1
"Man, you couldn't be any dumber, could you" - person 2
"Don't mess with my freedom of speech" - person 1

This is absurd.  Here's why:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

So... Congress (read "Government") shall not abridge (take away/shorten) the freedom of speech...
Unless person number 2 is some enforcer of the government, person number 2 is just spouting off ridiculousness.
Sadly, person number 2 exists a lot in our lovely 'Merica.

If you can say or write something without consequence from the government, then your freedom of speech has not been abridged, whatsoever.  There are, clearly, some limits to that freedom: hate speech.
But, with freedoms come risks.  So, we have the freedom to say what we want, but, the risk to it is that people, also, have the freedom to retort and ridicule us for our statements, however wise... or dumb.

Take Richard Sherman's (cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks) comments post game: “Well, I'm the best cornerback in the game!  When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree that's the result you are going to get!

Because of Sherman's Freedom of Speech, he has the luxury to say what he wants... the downside/risk to Sherman's comments are the amount of social media comments that wholly oppose his actions.  Uncle Sam hasn't come knocking on Sherman's door, Gestapo-style, to "correct" his comments.

Please, when someone calls you out... don't start crying about Freedom of Speech (again, of course, unless Uncle Same is the one calling you out.)