03 July 2017

Free Speech is hard

Sam Theilman's essay You're Asking The Wrong Questions does some deep digging into the principle of free speech, looking at some hard cases. I suspect that I am a few ticks more sympathetic to the social justice advocates he references than he is, but I land pretty much where he does on principle.

Anyone who thinks the examples he points to are easy scares me.

The question of whether the cover is in poor taste is a settled one: Yes, absolutely. On a book that is not very good? You got it. On a book that is not worth defending?

Well, now, see, those are fighting words.

His failure to link the Lindy West essay he references is odd, so I have it here: Save Free Speech From Trolls.