How can you expect to have a democracy without discussion?
The second word in free speech is speech.
If you believe in the one you must engage in the other.
There's a proper time and place to engage in political discussion and this ain't it. Unless of course, you don't care who you might insult by your comments. It's a subject where people know the least while believing they know the most and have very strong emotional attachments invested in their opinions.
When it's about getting loud and insulting about ones position in public is the real stickler. Discussing points of view has always been encouraged with a decorum of civility. When it is boisterously yammered in an arrogant way, people are rightly insulted and prefer not to have brought it up. I've never seen political arrogance solve anything or lead to any change of opinion and instead separates people even further. So why do it? Does it make people feel Patriotic? Perhaps.
The best example and why we're talking about this, is several posts up when Chicken suggested..."
We should bomb the middle East to the dark ages and be done". However, Cherute has relatives living in Lebanon. It's not difficult to see how insulting and divisive this can be.
So, it's not apathetic to hold your tongue when in a casual social setting with mixed company, it's polite. So just because you have the right to freedom of speech doesn't always make it right to do so.