More on the fragility of free speech: Guelzo claims it began in 1919 with Abrams. That was a step on the path, I agree, but not until Brandenburg v. Ohio did we really establish it in law: city-journal.org/free-speech-cr… I
I agree with Guelzo that we're rapidly revoking it through extrajudicial censorship. Cultural and professional sanctions have a serious chilling effect, just as legal penalties do. If we want to keep freedom of speech--not just the formal right, but the culture of freedom--
We have to recognize how precious it is, learn to make arguments for it that go beyond, "It's the First Amendment!"--we need to really make the case to our fellow citizens that freedom of expression is both inherently good and *good for us.*
And we have to think about what kind of society we have to be in order for it to be both good and good for us. It probably *isn't* good for societies that descend below a minimum level of civility, education, and literacy.
Guelzo suggests three short-term measures to protect free speech in the US: The first is "common cause." Those who care about free speech should demonstrate what this means by inviting people with whom they profoundly disagree to speak.
In practice, since we're now divided by political party, that would mean inviting people of the political party you believe to be Satan incarnate to speak at your university, your demonstration, your conference, your think tank, your website, your Facebook page. I agree.
Second: Defund the institutions causing the most damage. Stop donating to universities that suppress speech. Sadly, I think he's right: Those institutions are, probably, doing the most damage. But defunding universities--
--also means defunding critical medical research; the teaching of Greek and Latin, engineering, logic, medieval history, chemistry, agriculture ... and that would be a step in the wrong (very wrong) direction. The last thing we need is a less educated population.
Perhaps there's a more targeted way to convince university administrators that "Freedom of Expression 101" needs to be part of the core curriculum. Third, he suggests, "cultivating a spirit of resolute opposition to its suppression." That's a pointless suggestion--
--people who think it's important are already resolutely opposed to its suppression; the problem is convincing those who don't think it's important that actually, it really is. It would be a better article if he noted that the problem is not confined to the left:
We have 43% of the GOP agreeing with the statement, “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior,” and 48% agreeing that the media is "the enemy of the people"--
--and 23% of the GOP going as far as to say the president should "close down" CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times," clearly this is *not* a problem confined to the left. Believing that it is will not lead to the right diagnosis.
(Source on those stats is IPSOS, ipsos.com/en-us/news-pol…, the methodology is good enough. Probably their sense of its credibility interval is about right.)
One thing that might help is requiring every middle school student to read "On Liberty." That's age appropriate, and it's still the clearest argument in favor of free speech anyone's made. It's also really appealing to adolescents--not because the arguments are adolescent,
but because that's the age when kids naturally want more liberty--from their parents, but that can easily carry over into an interest in liberty, generally. I think eighth grade is the time to hit them with it. That could actually make a significant difference:
If everyone in the US reads that before they enter high school, they'll be intellectually armed, at least, with good arguments for freedom of expression. It's not enough just to say, "Free speech!" It's not an argument. They need to understand why.
So maybe that's a reasonable, achievable goal that those of us worried about threats to speech could all agree upon: By 2022, let's get some kind of bill passed that puts "On Liberty" in the curriculum of every eighth-grader in the country. #onlibertybyeighthgrade
