Freedom of Speech
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 9:30 am
Great discussion about freedom of speech going on today inspired by Judith Butler's piece at Academe. It's interesting because she lays out a decent case for the restrictions on freedom of speech that you see coming from Progressive identity politics, for lack of a better phrase. There does come a point when freedom of expression crosses the line into harassment that is being enabled by current technologies. We haven't done a very good job of sorting out where that is. I realize it's a messy process and I'm okay with messy processes taking time to get closer to good. But I don't think that the staunchest advocates of free speech (i.e. the team I imagine I'm on too) are doing themselves any favors by ignoring her best arguments, as Conor Friedersdorf does in his response in the Atlantic. You got a whole generation or two of people now who think limits on freedom of speech are reasonable in these areas, and who see the opposition represented by people like Roy Moore and Milo, Trump, or whoever the latest Joker on the right might be. When you find yourself standing shoulder-to-shoulder with people like that, it doesn't mean you should change your principled position, but it does mean you need to listen harder to why the other people aren't lining up with you so readily, if you hope to persuade them. And Butler gives us a good example of that. It seems like we're losing all remaining vestiges of privacy, and now simply showing up in public somewhere without participating in or committing yourself to any view (as by contrast people do when involved in protests) is apparently a license to have your likeness plastered everywhere for small armies of trolls and Russian robots to try to get you fired from your job, make you fear for your life, and damage all of your relationships and peace. Nobody wants this and if that's what Free Speech means I get why a lot of kids are like, no thanks, I want to be able to live my life in peace free from illegal harassment.