Prof. James D. Long on KBTC's Northwest Now, along with Seattle U. Law school faculty member Prof. Andrew Siegel, in a lively discussion of what is free speech in real terms of the U.S. Constitution.
(Narrator) What is Free Speech?
(Prof. Long) I think free speech is a broad thing, and it has a particular meaning with respect to the First Amendment...
...But I think there's a broader cultural aspect to it as well, which is that the First Amendment protects citizens from the government, but it doesn't protect citizens from each other.
And so I think, the culture of free speech is not just about, having First Amendment protections, but also that citizens are allowed to freely express themselves without fear of cancellation for speech that otherwise would be protected by the First Amendment.
And that has not proven to be the case, though, has it?
No.
...you know, history is full of cancellation attempts.
What's called Milton's curse refers to the English author John Milton, which is basically a free speech for me, but not for the, people always sort of like the First Amendment when they think it protects them or they like to say what they want on Twitter, but then if they ever come under the ire, prevailing opinion or opposing, opinion, then it's, you know, people become victimized and people also try to, to censor others or opinions that they don't like.
...And so one of the things I try to teach my students is to get around Milton's curse.
Look at the of the other side of the argument that you absolutely detest and don't like and appreciate that it should be allowed to be shared and then disagree with it.
Come up with the best argument against it rather than trying to censor it, build it up, make it better for, you know, make the argument better than that person maybe is making for themselves and then argue against that.
And I think that kind of exchange intellectually is good for people because then they understand why.
Then when...people are, you know, opposed to their ideas or something like that, they should still be allowed to express those ideas and then have a fruitful conversation that hopefully, you know, gets us closer to the truth....
For the full discussion, please link here.