Ken White, a well known former prosecutor turned defense lawyer and first amendment law expert/speaker (amongst other things), did an interesting article towards the end of last year talking about the importance of being clear about terminology in these discussions ("In Defense Of Free Speech Pedantry" [0]). I think that's very important in these online debates because "freedom of speech" has become a somewhat overloaded that people can use to mean different things. I tend to think of "Free Speech" specifically in terms of what he calls Free Speech Rights (FSR), the actual legal rights afforded by the 1st Amendment, 14th Amendment and subsequent court rulings and precedent, with what people do with it and my own opinions a separate sphere. A lot of people though are bringing in what he terms Free Speech Culture and Speech Decency as well. Just because we legally
can do something doesn't mean it's good to exercise that power. Norms sometimes should be challenged, but also are usually worth a bit of thought and discretion. And legal FSR apply to everyone and preserves a forever ongoing cycle of discussion and culture, that's part of the point, and in turn protect criticism and counter criticism, exclusion as well as inclusion. The right to speak necessarily entails the right to not speak.
I don't know if his proposed terms will ultimately catch on and make the most sense, but I do think it's worth some effort in being more precise with our language because FSR vs FSC and SD involves extremely different applications of power and risk, and separating out the domains can help everyone think more clearly about the topic. In the case of this classic saying, it involves all of them in a compact manner. Someone can think speech is just plain wrong, disgusting and evil even, but not want to see force used upon the speaker or any other speaker for a variety of good reasons.
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0: https://popehat.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-free-speech-ped...
I don't know if his proposed terms will ultimately catch on and make the most sense, but I do think it's worth some effort in being more precise with our language because FSR vs FSC and SD involves extremely different applications of power and risk, and separating out the domains can help everyone think more clearly about the topic. In the case of this classic saying, it involves all of them in a compact manner. Someone can think speech is just plain wrong, disgusting and evil even, but not want to see force used upon the speaker or any other speaker for a variety of good reasons.
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0: https://popehat.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-free-speech-ped...