Free Speech at Stake: The Growing Assault on Open Expression

When I graduated from Clarion State College in Western Pennsylvania in 1976, I left with a simple, four-year conclusion: the Left most intensely objects to unrestricted speech. That observation has played out over decades, at first slowly and then all at once. My earliest public contribution was a one-line Letter to the Editor in The New York Post in the early 1980s: “Free speech is great, as long as the person doing the talking is saying what you want to hear.” Today many memes capture the same idea: “hate speech is any speech I hate.” The debate is less about words themselves and more about who is allowed to speak. Over the years the backlash against dissent has hardened into outright cancellation and even legal action for what amount to thought crimes. A recent case illustrates the trend: Britain has reportedly detained comedian Graham Linehan over a string of tweets critical of transgender ideology and immigration policy. Andrea Widburg’s recent essay at American Thinker explores this episode in detail. The Framers placed free expression first for a reason. If you must hold your tongue to avoid punishment, you have effectively ceded debate to those who silence others. Self-...