A Warning to Americans From Across the Pond: Don’t Take Your Free Speech Rights for Granted

The arrest of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce is just the latest in a tapestry of alarming censorship exhibits.

Source: A Warning to Americans From Across the Pond: Don’t Take Your Free Speech Rights for Granted - Foundation for Economic Education

In the U.S., free speech has been considered a fundamental right since before the U.S. was a country. It is enshrined in our Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights as part of the 1st Amendment. If something is a fundamental right, how can it be restricted?

Over the last 20 years (give or take), it seems that the freedom of speech has slowly been eroded. This has taken various forms. Accusations of hate speech, the creation of so-called "safe zones", etc. In large part, these restrictions apply to speech that is offensive to virtually everyone. But if you aren't protecting speech that you disagree with then are you really protecting it at all. No protection is necessary if most people agree with you. Besides, if someone is a racists, homophobic misogynist (just as an example) then I would rather hear it from heir own mouth than have them hide it.

Then there is the problem of who gets to decide what hate speech is. It's not as if there is a fixed definition. If enough people suddenly find something offensive, then it can be deemed hate speech. This type of attitude suppresses debate and limits freedoms.

Things aren't so bad in the U.S. (yet) but the freedom of speech is slowly being eroded. There are other places where it is much worse and perhaps offer a glimpse of what is to come if we aren't careful. This article offers a few examples of what is going on in the U.K.

A woman was arrested for not cooperating with a police investigation. Why was she being investigated? Because she was praying outside of an abortion clinic. Perhaps even more frightening, since the Communications Act came into law in 2003, there have been several instances of people being arrested for 'offensive' private text messages. Some things that can land you in jail in the U.K. include making a dirty joke in private, quoting the bible, and criticizing royalty. I would compare this to Nazi tactics but that might be offensive.

The whole point of having free speech is that you are allowed to say things that are offensive to some people. If you can't, then you don't really have free speech. You would think this would be something everyone could understand.