gatestoneinstitute | The US nominally enshrines
the most far-reaching freedom of speech, thanks to the First Amendment
of the Constitution. Yet the average number of Americans who self-censor
is slowly beginning to approximate that of Germany, where... "Nearly
two-thirds of citizens are convinced that 'today one has to be very
careful on which topics one expresses oneself', because there are many
unwritten laws about what opinions are acceptable and admissible".
It is, however, not surprising. American campuses have steered a
"leftist" course for decades. The tilt has had familiar consequences:
the proliferation on campus of "safe spaces", trigger warnings,
de-platforming of conservative voices and a "cancel culture" aimed at
professors and students who do not conform to an on-campus political
orthodoxy that has become increasingly totalitarian. Most recently, the
dean of University of Massachusetts Lowell's School of Nursing, Leslie
Neal-Boylan, was fired by the school after writing "Black lives matter,
but also everyone's life matters" in an email to students and faculty.
When citizens stop voicing their concerns in public about current
events, policies and ideas out of fear that they will lose their
livelihoods and social standing, it is -- or should be -- a huge problem
in a democracy.
A democratic society of fearful citizens who dare not speak about
what is on their minds -- often important issues of their time -- is
doomed to succumb to the will of those who bully the hardest and shout
the loudest.
A recent survey
of 2,000 Americans by Cato Institute/YouGov found that 62% of Americans
say "the political climate these days prevents them from saying things
they believe because others might find them offensive". This is up from 2017,
when 58% agreed with this statement. "Majorities of Democrats (52%),
independents (59%) and Republicans (77%) all agree they have political
opinions they are afraid to share".
People who defined themselves as staunch liberals self-censored considerably less:
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