Free speech is under assault, but we still need to talk

Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on Mar 18, 2022

“This is not a left versus right issue,” Kilborn told a Chicago Tribune reporter. “The issue is extremism.”

Indeed. If both sides are too busy expressing their passionate arguments to bother to listen to the other side, what’s the point of arguing?

More than any time that I can recall since the 1960s, the chaotic Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol seems to offer an extreme example of where we’re headed when being heard becomes more important than peacefully resolving disputes.

Yet in court, Jan. 6 defendants and some of their defenders, including the Republican National Committee, see the rioters as engaging in “legitimate political discourse,” partly in response to what they see as uncontrolled rioting in the streets by “cancel culture,” “woke” liberals” and Black Lives Matter on the left.

The left too often responds against “elites” on the right, even when it puts them at odds with the working-class voters who used to be the left’s strongest supporters.

But perhaps, as my millennial son said about peaceful resolution of such disputes, “That’s so last century, Dad.”

I hope not. The best response to offensive speech, according to a wise, old civil libertarian saying, is more speech. Unfortunately, today we increasingly see people on both sides breaking their own rules so much that it divides families and neighbors, confusing our ability to understand one another enough to find common ground, if there is any left.

Only 34% of Americans in a new national poll commissioned by Times Opinion and Siena College said they believed that all Americans enjoyed complete freedom of speech. An overwhelming 84% of adults said it is a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” problem that some Americans avoid speaking freely in everyday situations for fear of retaliation or harsh criticism.

As someone who offers my opinions for a living, I understand that fear. But in our diverse society, we still need to talk. Otherwise, how do we learn?

(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)