I really don’t think it’s ever been a thing. Free speech that is.
Cause too much trouble and they’ll ask you to kill yourself and if you don’t they’ll go public with some info that they spied on you to get.
It’s hard to say how many people were dragged away for being suspected of communist sympathies.
It’s what we are as a species.
If someone did something big and shitty at any point in our history, thank your lucky stars if you don’t look like him. Imagine trying to catch a plane in 2002 as a Sikh. “Yes, fbi? I think there’s a big scary muslin getting on my plane.”
I think there have been societies with genuine protections for free speech, and even in the USA there have been better times and worse. So I wouldn’t say that shutting down free speech is “what we are as a species.” As a species we have many impulses to be hostile to those we disagree with, but we also have the ability to see past these and to build societal systems that protect people’s right to speak freely. It’s up to us whether we pursue the latter or give up.
I really don’t think it’s ever been a thing. Free speech that is.
Cause too much trouble and they’ll ask you to kill yourself and if you don’t they’ll go public with some info that they spied on you to get.
It’s hard to say how many people were dragged away for being suspected of communist sympathies.
It’s what we are as a species.
If someone did something big and shitty at any point in our history, thank your lucky stars if you don’t look like him. Imagine trying to catch a plane in 2002 as a Sikh. “Yes, fbi? I think there’s a big scary muslin getting on my plane.”
I think there have been societies with genuine protections for free speech, and even in the USA there have been better times and worse. So I wouldn’t say that shutting down free speech is “what we are as a species.” As a species we have many impulses to be hostile to those we disagree with, but we also have the ability to see past these and to build societal systems that protect people’s right to speak freely. It’s up to us whether we pursue the latter or give up.