Free speech does not equal violence: Part 1 of answers to bad arguments against free speech from Nadine Strossen and Greg Lukianoff

Over the weekend, I heard on NPR’s broadcast of the WNYC podcast On the Media what is probably the worst extended defense of what they might think of as “enlightened” censorship I have heard in ages. As a lifelong fan of NPR, I could hardly believe what I was hearing, as the guests used shallow arguments to knock down strawman versions of arguments for freedom of speech, with no pushback from the hosts or any attempt to include the insight of any experts on the pro-free speech side. 

Based on the piece that ran on NPR, it’s clear that profound misunderstandings of free speech are common, and a “back-to-basics” approach to education on free speech is needed. Back in May, I published a list of “Answers to 12 Bad Anti-Free Speech Arguments” with our friends over at Areo. To my surprise, the response to the piece was tremendous. Last week (before the piece on NPR and just coincidentally), the great Nadine Strossen — former president of the ACLU from 1991 to 2008, and one of the greatest experts on freedom of speech alive today — offered to provide her own answers to some important misconceptions about freedom of speech. This will be the first part of the series of answers from Nadine on key misconceptions about freedom of speech, and, when applicable, followed by my answers from Areo.

Other entries in the series:

• Part 1: Free speech does not equal violence
• Part 2: Free speech is for everyone
• Part 3: Hate speech laws backfire
• Part 4: Free speech is bigger than the First Amendment
• Part 5: You can shout ‘fire’ in a burning theater
• Part 6: Is free speech outdated?
• Part 7: Does free speech assume words are harmless?
• Part 8: Is free speech just a conservative talking point?
• Part 9: Free speech fosters cultural diversity
• Part 10: Why 'civility' should not trump free expression
• Part 11: ‘New’ justifications for censorship are never really new
• Part 12: Free speech isn’t free with a carveout for blasphemy
• Part 13: Does free speech lead inevitably to truth?
• Part 14: Shouting down speakers is mob censorship

Assertion: Free speech was created under the false notion that words and violence are distinct, but we now know that certain speech is more akin to violence.

Nadine Strossen: Physical violence directly and inevitably causes at least some physical harm, as well as associated psychic harm. Words may indeed have the same harmful potential. Unlike physical violence, though, speech can influence listeners only through their intermediating perceptions, reactions, and actions, and only as one of countless other factors that also have potential influence. For this reason, hurling words at someone is materially different from hurling the proverbial “sticks and stones.” Sticks and stones directly cause harm, through their own force, but words at most can potentially contribute to harm; whether particular words actually do cause harm depends on how individual listeners perceive and respond to them, which in turn is influenced by the listeners’ personalities and circumstances, including innumerable other factors that also potentially influence their psyches and behavior.

To this day, powerful critics of Black Lives Matter and other social justice activists seek to suppress and punish their expression on the ground that it allegedly constitutes or causes violence.

When there is a sufficiently tight and direct causal nexus between speech and specific serious imminent harm, including violence, free speech principles permit such speech to be punished. For example, the government may punish a speaker who intentionally incites violence that is likely to happen imminently. As another example, under the “fighting words” doctrine, the government may punish a direct personal insult that is intended and likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction. 

In contrast, when the government has been allowed to punish speech because of a more speculative, indirect connection between it and some potential future violence — as happened in the U.S. in the past, and still occurs in other countries — the government predictably exercises this discretionary power to punish disempowered speakers and dissenting perspectives. After all, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes noted, “Every idea is an incitement.” More recently, ACLU Legal Director David Cole observed that “A. Mitchell Palmer, J. Edgar Hoover, and Joseph McCarthy all used the advocacy of violence as a justification to punish people who associated with Communists, socialists, or civil rights groups.” To this day, powerful critics of Black Lives Matter and other social justice activists seek to suppress and punish their expression on the ground that it allegedly constitutes or causes violence.

Greg Lukianoff: Speech equals violence isn’t a new idea. It’s a very old — and very bad — idea.

On campus, I often run into people — not only students, but professors — who seem to think they’re the first to notice that the speech/violence distinction is a social construct. They conclude that this means it’s an arbitrary distinction — and that, since it’s arbitrary, the line can be put where they please. (Conveniently, they draw the line based on their personal views: If it’s speech that they happen to hate, then it just might be violence.)

Ironically, the whole point of freedom of speech, from its beginning, has been to enable people to sort things out without resorting to violence.

A quotation often attributed to Sigmund Freud (which he attributed to another writer) conveys this: “The first human being who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.”

Yes, a strong distinction between the expression of opinion and violence is a social construct, but it’s one of the best social constructs for peaceful coexistence, innovation, and progress that’s ever been invented. Redefining the expression of opinion as violence is a formula for a chain reaction of endless violence, repression, and regression.

Read more here: “Why It’s a Bad Idea to Tell Students Words Are Violence,” by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Atlantic.

Sept. 7, 2021 Update: Following a terrorist attack in Auckland on Sept. 3, New Zealand’s Free Speech Union released a statement, written by FSU’s Rachel Poulain, with an eloquent defense of the value of free expression, which echos Greg’s response above:

Violence in the name of ideology is the polar opposite of free speech. It is the ultimate attempt to silence those who do not share your worldview.

Differences of political and religious opinion must be navigated with reason and dialogue. Never through violence. Never through fear.

Those who refuse to resolve ideological differences with words are the ones who turn to violence. Those who refuse to respectfully engage in civil dialogue with those they disagree with are the ones who become hateful extremists in the first place.

Freedom of speech — the fundamental human right to peacefully express one’s opinion — is an inherently non-violent principle. This is why we seek to protect it.

FIRE, a First Amendment charity, effectively and decisively defends the fundamental rights of tens of thousands of students and faculty members on our nation’s campuses while simultaneously reaching millions on and off campus through education, outreach, and college reform efforts.