redbloodedamerica:

Free Speech Hasn’t Changed, Only the Victims Have

Remember this?  That’s UC Berkeley in 1964 where left-wing students sparked protests around the nation for their First Amendment right to support the Civil Rights movement and to oppose the Vietnam War amongst other issues.  They were fought by right-wing politics that wanted to enforce the status quo, but pro-free speech attitudes eventually won the nationwide debate.  A series of Supreme Court decisions from the 60s through the 90s all protected left-wing free speech, including the right of civil rights protesters to peaceably demonstrate, the right to wear clothing promoting left-wing causes, and the right to desecrate an American flag.  

Over time, a new consensus around free speech would form and it would overwhelmingly no longer be a partisan issue.  Today, it is partisan again.  Where once the left was the vanguard of free speech, now many on the left attack it.  The American Civil Liberties Union now has new guidelines against taking cases protecting free speech rights as it “may raise tensions with racial justice, reproductive freedom, or a myriad of other rights.”  

In June of 2018, The New York Times published a front-page article titled “How Conservatives Weaponized the First Amendment” in response to Supreme Court free speech victories for conservatives, including protecting Christian bakers from designing pro-gay marriage cakes, protecting workers from being mandated to support politically active unions, and protecting Christian pro-life pregnancy centers from helping women obtain abortions.  

And according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, 149 colleges and universities in the United States have at least one policy that clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.  Plus we’ve seen repeated physical violence against right-of-center speakers on campuses.  This 180 degree change is revealing; it’s easy to support the First Amendment when it means protecting your right to express your views.  But once you have the rights you’ve fought for and those you disagree with are the ones pushing for their free speech rights–when it’s conservatives and libertarians who are under attack on college campuses, when it’s socially conservative Christians who want to stay true to their values rather than atheists, when it’s unions inhibiting the speech rights of workers rather than unions being cracked down upon. 

A large portion of the left has found it easier to drop their principles than to defend rights that help those they disagree with.  But this doesn’t mean the pro-free speech left is entirely disappeared and that doesn’t mean the right will always remain a principle vanguard of free speech.  We need actual principle defenders of free speech on both sides of the aisle to join together and vocally opposed the illiberal authoritarians of both sides.  Removing free speech from those you disagree with means it doesn’t exist at all, as your speech can be taken away when the political tides turn as they always do.