Freedom of Speech

In Athens, Any Citizen Was Allowed to Speak in Public;
Free Speech Is A Cornerstone of Western Culture

Legacy of the Western World: Free Speech

The western liberal world order established that free speech is essential to human liberty. It is so important that it's in perpetual jeopardy.
Those who seek to limit free speech assert that they're protecting people from "violent words" or dangerous misinformation.
Is this legitimate and justified? What does history reveal? How is free speech being contested today?

The 2020 Election Dispute

Officials — in the CISA election-security agency's joint statement of November 12, 2020 — called it "the most secure in American history," while millions of citizens disagreed and exercised their First Amendment right to bring their grievance to the government. Wildly opposing accounts emerged, ranging from "insurrection, attempted overthrow of the government" to "mostly peaceful protest" to "government entrapment of Trump supporters." Which account fits the evidence?
The COVID Speech Fights

Doctors and health advocates who dissented from official COVID-19 positions were suspended from social media platforms, investigated by medical boards, and in some cases threatened with the loss of their licences. A Department of Homeland Security bulletin in February 2022 listed the spread of "false or misleading narratives" about COVID among the factors in the domestic terrorism threat environment — which critics read as branding dissenters extremists, and defenders as routine threat assessment. The power to rule some claims out of bounds is exactly the power the free-speech pillar was built to limit.
The George Floyd Protests

Charges of police brutality following George Floyd's death brought millions into the streets. Many officials who had been enforcing COVID limits on gatherings made exceptions for these protests — critics called that a double standard; supporters called the cause urgent enough to warrant it. Much coverage described "mostly peaceful protests," while insurers tallied over $1 billion in damage claims, the costliest civil disorder in United States insurance history. Which framings fit the evidence?
The Athlete vs. the League

Basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom called out China's treatment of Uyghurs and Tibetans, putting him in conflict with the NBA — which, Kanter Freedom charges, stays silent because its China business is lucrative. A citizen may say what he likes about a foreign government; whether his employer must bear the cost of it is the harder question, and it is one the First Amendment does not answer.