When institutions claim to value inquiry but treat unwelcome conclusions as intolerable, whether those conclusions are mistaken or true, what remains of the freedom to think? That is the question. Most people say they support free speech. What they usually mean is the right to be wrong. That right matters. Without room to say something … Read more
Free speech is the good. Safety is not a reason to give it up. The demand to limit speech in the name of safety, emotional safety, psychological safety, or protection from offense is a demand to stop the testing of claims. Once speech can be restricted because it unsettles someone, the power to decide what … Read more
You have probably watched a familiar word change meaning in public use, sometimes quite quickly. A term that once described a specific action or condition gets expanded, narrowed, or inverted so that it better serves a preferred conclusion. The shift is rarely announced as a formal redefinition. It is simply repeated until the older sense … Read more