Free Speech Sense and Sensibility

It is precious to see so many college administrators, deans, and presidents now honing “principled,” absolutist commitments to freedom of speech on their campuses. When campuses were hosting Dennis Prager, Charles Murray, Charlie Kirk, or Riley Gaines, or even federal appellate court judges, the messages that used to ban or chase them off campus were “hate has no home here” or “the juice is not worth the squeeze.” Defamatory characterizations on the part of biased third parties such as the SPLC against these speakers as “white nationalists”—or worse—were used as evidence that they should not be protected. “Hate speech is not protected speech” became the bray of leftist academics and legislators across the whole country.

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