Free speech is not for the faint of heart. As George Orwell, author of 1984, noted: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” Unfortunately, our appreciation for a robust freedom of speech has worn thin over the years. Societies that cherish free speech relish open debates and controversy and, in turn, produce a robust citizenry who will stand against authoritarian government. Indeed, oppressive regimes of the past have understood the value of closed-mouthed, closed-minded citizens and the power inherent in controlling speech and, thus, controlling how a people view their society and government. Case in point: the United States government has a ravenous appetite for power and a seeming desire to turn the two-way dialogue that is our constitutional republic into a one-way dictatorship. Emboldened by phrases such as “hate crimes,” “bullying,” “extremism” and “microaggressions,” the government is whittling away at free speech, confining it to carefully constructed “free speech zones,” criminalizing it when it skates too close to challenging the status quo, shaming it when it butts up against politically correct ideals, and muzzling it when it appears dangerous. Free speech is no longer free.

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Show Notes

The Confederate flag, the First Amendment and public schools

The Coddling of the American Mind

The Ever-Expanding Concept of ‘Bullying’ Casts an Ominous Shadow Over Free Speech

The Delete Squad

U.S. meets tech leaders, forms task force to fight online militants

Free Speech Isn't Free

Justice Brandeis, Concurrence in Whitney v. California (1927), U.S. Supreme Court

The Right to Tell the Government to Go to Hell: Free Speech in an Age of Government Bullies, Corporate Censors and Compliant Citizens

Battlefield America: The War on the American People

Rutherford Institute