Since so many people seem to be confused on this point:
free speech is the right to express ideas without coercion
We must protect freedom of speech both because it is an aspect of individuals’ right to liberty and dignity and because it is good for society to have a rich exchange of ideas.
It is important that we understand free speech broadly and protect it vigorously. But common misunderstandings inspire me to outline what free speech is not:
- Free speech is not just law, it is a principle, a social norm.
- Free speech is not just protection from government censorship, it is protection from coercion of all kinds. If there are things you cannot say because it might cost you professional opportunities in work unrelated to what you said, or it might lead to harassment or even violence, or it might prevent you from finding housing or medical care or other essential services, then that is no less coercive than a law. (It is important to distinguish this from professiional consequences for saying things related to one’s work.) The rest of that famous XKCD cartoon is correct, but that first panel is dangerously wrong: where it says “free speech” it describes the First Amendment, not the principle of free speech.
- Free speech is not only a protection for nice speech, it is and must be a protection for icky speech too. Free speech is a right to say things that discomfort others.
- Free speech is not a right to speak in every space. It is a right to speak in the public sphere. One may also be invited into private spaces, and what one says there is subject to the same free speech principles, but that does not mean one has a right to barge into any space you want and demand to speak. Private spaces may set their own rules for participation.
- Free speech is not a right to freedom from criticism. The whole point is that one’s critics are free to speak, too.
- Free speech is not a right to say anything, it is a right to express ideas. It is not a license for lies, deceit, and fraud. It is not a license to conspire to commit crimes. It is not a license for slander, harassment, and threats. There is no legitimate personal right to those actions, they do not contribute to the public sphere of ideas, and there is a significant public interest in curtailing them.
This is not hard to understand. But things being what they are, I expect that I will have to expand and clarify this list over time.
5 comments:
"If there are things you cannot say because it might cost you professional opportunities in work unrelated to what you said... then that is no less coercive than a law."
This sentence needs parsing. It deserves to be gamed out.
Scenario: a Leebo of Leebotown expresses in public a hatred for the Weebles of Weebleville; in specific, the Leebo loudly advocates for forced sterilization of Weebles, whom the Leebo continuously calls by a derisive, Weeble-specific, and generally-agreed-upon-as-insulting epithet.
This Leebo works in a field in which the Leebo will never interact with Weebles or design or work on anything that impacts Weebles.
That said, the odious nature of the Leebo's utterances leads prospective employers to refuse the Leebo employment, since they fear that hiring the Leebo could be read as a tacit endorsement of the Leebo's sentiments*.
Question: does the Leebo have cause to invoke violation of protection of free speech?
* Or, for that matter, because all of the prospective employers think that the Leebo's statements are odious and wrongheaded.
Confession: I'd hoped to come up with more scenarios, but just concocting this one wore me out.
The Leebo can indeed claim that this is a violation of the principle of free speech. I can see no bright line identifying what speech is odious enough to allow for employers to police employee's speech outside of their work domain that does not present opportunity for mischief.
See Trumbo, Dalton
I think the bright line is whether the speaker is wearing the uniform either figuratively or literally. If one is introduced as VP of X X can be justifyably concerned with the content of the speech. On a soapbox in sweats, no.
This comes under the consequences resulting from offensive speech. If the listener can boycot X as a result of the VP's speech, X has an interest. If the only consequence is a punch in the face, X has no interest.
Aye. There is a difference between speaking that is directly relevant to one's profession and speaking which is not.
As noted elsewhere Free Speech must include the possibility of rotten tomatoes being thrown at the speaker. Venues where rotten tomatoes are inappropriate or forbidden have the right to limit free speech.
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