Freedom of speech is forever embattled. That is its nature. Easy to assent to in the abstract, the principle becomes more challenging when the speech at issue assails one’s most cherished values. Polls over the years have consistently reflected this dynamic. “Of course I support freedom of speech,” respondents say, “but not for that sort of speech.”
The current state of turmoil over this freedom, however, feels different. I know of no other period, certainly not in my lifetime, when public discourse about freedom of speech has been so contentious and confounding.
The impulse to censor is resurgent across the political spectrum. On the right, anxieties about what others are reading are fueling campaigns to purge books from library shelves and from school curricula. On the left, the practice has taken hold of policing the words of others in search of evidence that the speaker is irredeemably racist, sexist or homophobic.
