‘Free speech for me, not for thee’

- "… the history of thought about free speech does contain ideas that can be of use. Among them are the concepts of “audience interests” and the “right to hear,” which have been repeatedly recognized by the Supreme Court. These concepts see the First Amendment from a listener’s point of view. In addition to asking, “Do I have the right to speak,”... See more

The freedom to express a thought, a doubt, a joke, even a mistake is vanishing under the pressure of ideological purism. That, too, is a form of soft authoritarianism: not imposed from above, but enforced through fear of social exclusion. When even freedom’s champions become its censors, we are entering dangerous terrain.