Enforcing Patriotism, Suppressing Dissent: America’s Neglected Free Speech Crisis
Picture this. Students in schools paid for with tax dollars are ordered to stand as a sign of respect for the federal government. If they sit or kneel, they face…
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Free Speech
45 posts
Meet the New Conservatives, Same As the Old Conservatives
Someone unfamiliar with American political history might be forgiven for thinking that American social conservatives have historically been in favor of individualism and small government and have only recently embraced…
Social Media Bans Make Good Business Sense
It’s now been pretty much established that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube aren’t committed to the fundamental principle of free speech. All these social media companies have blocked individuals whose opinions…
The Grain of Truth Behind Calls to Restrict Debate
Statements about the oppressive nature of academic debate or the need to balance free speech with a consideration of people’s feelings are often seen as outrageous enough to be instantly…
Zuckerberg: The Digital Gutenberg
On Thursday the second of May Facebook drew a line in the sand, banning from their platforms people who purvey ideas they deem dangerous. Being purged from Facebook and Instagram…
The Internet Is Making You Less Free
Our current age is defined by the internet. The internet—a technology that allows the decentralized, globalized dissemination of information—has become so thoroughly entrenched in human life that access is now…
The Student Snowflake Stereotype is Counterproductive to the Cause of Free Speech
Are students intolerant, overly sensitive snowflakes? Yes, according to broadcasters like Tucker Carlson in America and right-wing commentators James Delingpole, Brendan O’Neill, Toby Young and Julia Hartley-Brewer in the UK.…
The Left-Wing Case Against Censorship of Social Media
In conversations about online extremism, the question of platforms inevitably arises. YouTube, for example, may be held culpable for featuring video recommendations that lead young men down rabbit holes of…
In Defense of Hate Speech
On 23 February, Oluwole Ilesanmi, a Christian street preacher, was approached by two uniformed police officers outside an underground station in north London. Donned with an earpiece microphone and a…
Is Battle Rap the Last True Bastion of Free Speech?
In a packed basement in the heart of Sheffield, northern England, two burly men—one wearing a hoodie, the other sporting a fitted New York Mets baseball cap at a jaunty…
How Did Free Speech Get Here?
It was a good day for our public discourse when, on the popular public talk show Firing Line, conservative intellectual William F. Buckley had a conversation with avant-guard Beat poet…
Britain’s Social Media Problem
For people under the impression that the UK takes its civil liberties seriously, the past two years’ parliamentary debates around social media make for a frightening read. A recent spate…
“Good Intentions Gone Awry”: Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s The Coddling of the American Mind. Book Review.
There has, in recent years, been a significant change in the way in which many left-wing activists—especially student activists—express their complaints against their ideological opponents on the right. In their…
Positive Liberty and Social Rights: Freedom of Speech on Campus
On university campuses, on the whole, people should be able to express their minds freely and openly, even if they hold contrarian opinions. Campuses are generally places of intellectual inquiry…
Areopagitica for Millennials
A few weeks ago, I went to the Chiltern village of Chalfont St Giles to visit a building that looks like something an illustrator would produce in a children’s encyclopedia…
The Ideological Reflex and the Culture of Reason
Plato’s Socratic dialogues—in which Socrates questions and argues with a variety of interlocutors who claim to know the nature of such things as justice and virtue—are known for their exhortation…
Don’t Be an Indoor Cat: The Danger of Safety Culture
Too many of us are behaving like indoor cats these days. Let me explain.
The Reluctant Leftist: Pragmatism and Liberty
Liberty and Regulations Individual liberty—the right to determine one’s own path in life, and the opportunity to improve oneself or squander that potential—has long been of great importance to me,…
