'Who Really Benefits From the First Amendment?'
'Who Really Benefits From the First Amendment?'
My conversation with Nadine Strossen, former president of the ACLU
Appears in this episode
Those on the political left have long seen free speech as a core tenet — so it’s been bizarre for many of us to watch the left abandon it, and, in many cases, now even campaign against it.
My guest on the podcast today has written a new piece for Tablet Magazine arguing that, in fact, this trend is not particularly new. The essay is titled “Who Really Benefits From the First Amendment?,” and it takes a look back in history at attacks on free speech originating on the left — and stresses that the left needs to remember that free speech is essential for minority rights.
Nadine Strossen is a former national president of the American Civil Liberties Union, and a professor emerita at New York Law School. Her most recent book is Hate: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship.
'Who Really Benefits From the First Amendment?'
It's not ironic that the left is abandoning free speech, because they never believed it in principle. Free speech was a means of attaining political power in the past, and censorship is a means of maintaining power now that they have it. But in both cases the goal is the same : power.
Everyone always believes that only their voice matters and so it makes sense to silence those who don't sound like them. They never realize that this silencing will eventually be used against them.