Pirate's Cove

I wonder what prompted this editorial. Did someone try and cancel one of the editorial board members or someone they know?

America Has a Free Speech Problem

For all the tolerance and enlightenment that modern society claims, Americans are losing hold of a fundamental right as citizens of a free country: the right to speak their minds and voice their opinions in public without fear of being shamed or shunned.

This social silencing, this depluralizing of America, has been evident for years, but dealing with it stirs yet more fear. It feels like a third rail, dangerous. For a strong nation and open society, that is dangerous.

How has this happened? In large part, it’s because the political left and the right are caught in a destructive loop of condemnation and recrimination around “cancel culture.” Many on the left refuse to acknowledge that cancel culture exists at all, believing that those who complain about it are offering cover for bigots to peddle hate speech. Many on the right, for all their braying about cancel culture, have embraced an even more extreme version of censoriousness as a bulwark against a rapidly changing society, with laws that would ban books, stifle teachers and discourage open discussion in classrooms.

Ah. That’s it. They’re upset that Republicans do not want what are essentially porn books in grade schools, and do not want teachers telling young children things they do not need to know at that age, especially about adult sexual issues, nor that they are evil if they are white.

However you define cancel culture, Americans know it exists, and feel its burden. In a new national poll commissioned by Times Opinion and Siena College, only 34 percent of Americans said they believed that all Americans enjoyed freedom of speech completely. The poll found that 84 percent of adults said it is a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” problem that some Americans do not speak freely in everyday situations because of fear of retaliation or harsh criticism.

We’ve all been in situations where we hold our tongues because we feel it’s inappropriate to say what we’re thinking, what we really want to say, right? Sometimes we just do not want to offend someone else, be it a friend, family member, coworker, or person you don’t know. It’s the adult thing to do. That’s different from holding our tongues over something that would usually be non-offensive because some leftist lunatic will start ranting and raving and try and get us cancelled. Get us fired. Destroy our lives. All because we disagree

This poll, and other recent surveys from the Pew Research Center and the Knight Foundation, reveals a crisis of confidence around one of America’s most basic values. Freedom of speech and expression is vital to human beings’ search for truth and knowledge about our world. A society that values freedom of speech can benefit from the full diversity of its people and their ideas. At the individual level, human beings cannot flourish without the confidence to take risks, to pursue ideas and express thoughts that others might reject.

Interestingly, the NY Times has typically taken the side of shutting people down for their expression, such as with climate change skeptics.

Most important, freedom of speech is the bedrock of democratic self government. If people feel free to express their views in their communities, the democratic process can respond to and resolve competing ideas. Ideas that go unchallenged by opposing views risk becoming weak and brittle rather than being strengthened by tough scrutiny. When speech is stifled or when dissenters are shut out of public discourse, a society also loses its ability to resolve conflict, and it faces the risk of political violence.

Think how the NY Times has treated those on the Right who thought the 2020 election was stolen. Who were skeptical on a lot of things COVID related.

The Times Opinion/Siena College poll found that 46 percent of respondents said they felt less free to talk about politics compared to a decade ago. Thirty percent said they felt the same. Only 21 percent of people reported feeling freer, even though in the past decade there was a vast expansion of voices in the public square through social media.

There are certain people I will not have political conversations with, because they lose their crap and get personal. Also, I avoid them at work. Even when we’re slow and bored. Don’t want the drama.

But the old lesson of “think before you speak” has given way to the new lesson of “speak at your peril.” You can’t consider yourself a supporter of free speech and be policing and punishing speech more than protecting it. Free speech demands a greater willingness to engage with ideas we dislike and a greater self-restraint in the face of words that challenge and even unsettle us.

There are things you say in a Polite Society, and things you should probably keep internally. Sometimes it’s just plain respect.

But, yeah, this is really about not wanting certain books and curriculum in schools as espoused by Republicans, something which the majority of parents agree with them on. Seven of the last 8 paragraphs deal with this, including

These bills include Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which restricts what teachers and students can talk about and allows for parents to file lawsuits. If the law goes into force, watch for lawsuits against schools that restrict the free speech rights of students to discuss things like sexuality, established by earlier Supreme Court rulings.

It’s not called that, the word gay doesn’t appear, and it doesn’t stop kids from bringing it up for discussion. How many kids 8 and under will start a discussion on transgenderism or anal sex without prompting? Are these things kids care about? Think about? No. And most parents do not want these discussions in school. They do not want adults with agendas grooming their kids. Discussing blowjobs, anal sex, trying to convince them they are a different sex.

Jumping back up higher in the article

It is worth noting here the important distinction between what the First Amendment protects — freedom from government restrictions on expression — and the popular conception of free speech — the affirmative right to speak your mind in public, on which the law is silent. The world is witnessing firsthand, in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the strangling of free speech through government censorship and imprisonment. That is not the kind of threat to freedom of expression that Americans face. Yet, something has been lost; the poll clearly shows a dissatisfaction with free speech as it is experienced and understood by Americans today.

Interestingly, no mention of what Canada did to the Freedom Truckers. No mention of school boards shutting down parents. However, the text of the 1st Amendment is all about Government not being able to pass a law that shuts down the right to speak out against the government. Teachers are government employees. The government has a right, an obligation, even, to stop them from inflicting their personal biases on young children. Teachers are not engaged in speaking out against government, but, in telling children things better left to the parents.