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Reason
Reason
Politics
Eugene Volokh

On Free Speech, "I Choose Low Expectations"

From an excellent N.Y. Times op-ed by Greg Lukianoff (FIRE):

If you're a free-speech lawyer, you face a choice: Either expect to be disappointed by people of all political stripes — or go crazy. I choose low expectations.

Again and again, political actors preach the importance of free speech, only to reach for the censor's muzzle when it helps their side. If, like me, you defend free speech as a principle rather than invoke it opportunistically, you get distressingly accustomed to seeing the same people take opposite positions on an issue, sometimes within the space of just a few months….

And he closes (after offering a good deal of detailed evidence),

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